YALE 


LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 


HENRY  WARD   BEECHER. 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  THEOLOGICAL  DEPARTMENT  OF  YALE 
COLLEGE,  NEW  HAVEN,  CONN.,  IN  THE  REGULAR  COURSE 
OF  THE   "LYMAN  BEECHER  LECTURESHIP 
ON  PREACHING."  ' 


FROM     PHONOGRAPHIC     REPOP^TS 


By  T.  J.  ELLINWOOD. 


E]}ixti  levies. 


THSQLOaiGJLl 


"h^" 

C^', 


NEW  YOEK: 

J.  B.  FOKD   AND   COMPANY. 

1874. 


'■^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874, 

BY    J.    B.    FORD   AND    COMPANY, 

in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


University  Press:  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co., 
Cambridge. 


Theological  Department,  Yale  College, 
March  19,  187i. 
Rev.  Henry  "Ward  Beecher. 

Dear  Sir,  —  At  the  close  of  your  third  course  of  lectures 
on  the  Sage  Foundation,  we  take  pleasivre  in  expressing  to  you 
our  high  appreciation  of  their  value,  and  in  testifying  to  the 
deep  interest  with  which  they  have  been  heard  by  the  large 
and  cultivated  audience  to  which  they  have  been  addressed. 

Seldom,  indeed,  is  the  opportmiity  offered  of  listening  to  dis- 
courses on  topics  connected  with  the  Christian  ministry,  which 
are  at  once  so  earnest,  inspiring,  and  instructive.  To  the  stu- 
dents for  whom  they  were  especially  designed  they  must  prove 
eminently  quickening  and  permanently  useful. 
We  remain,  dear  sir, 

With  high  regard, 

Your  friends  and  servants, 

Noah  Porter,  V.V.,LL.0. 
Leonard  Bacon, D-D -;Li—D. 
George  E.  Dat,  V-D^LWD. 
Samuel  Harris,  D.D.,  UL.X^, 
Jas.  M.  Hoppin,  "jD-X). 
George  P.  Fisher,  D-T).,  Li.  .D, 
Timothy  Dwight.  X).  D. 


CONTENTS. 


vu 


Social  Symbols 98 

Why  these  Elements  have  been  used     ...  99 

Growth  in  Conceptions  of  God  .         .         .         .100 

^  The  Barrenness  of  Abstract  Preaching  .         .         .  103 

God  in  Nature          . 106 

A  Pei-sonal  Experience          .         .         .         ,         .  107 
Follow  the  Hebraic  Spirit,  —  not  Form    .         .         .108 

How  to  realize  the  Divine  Presence       .         .         ,  110 

Not  by  Will-Power 110 

Not  by  fixed  Artificial  Symbols    .         .         .         .  Ill 

But  by  seeing  God  in  everything      ....  112 

V.   Practical  Use  of  the  Divine  Ideal    ...  115 

A  Paradox 115 

Idolatry  and  Mysticism 115 

The  Known  raised  to  the  Unknown           .         .         .  116 

The  Sense  of  Infinity,  a  Moral  Power  .         .         .  117 

Danger  of  the  Infinite  Ideal 119 

"The  Unknowable  reduced  to  the  Knowable   .         .  120 

Use  of  the  Imagination 121  ' 

The  Humbling  of  Self-Esteem       ....  123 

Growth  of  an  Understanding  of  Christ      .         .         .  125 

The  New  Testament  seen  through  the  Old  Testament  126 

Eeflected  Light 129 

Power  of  the  Old  Testament          .         .         .         .  130 

Sacredness  of  the  Name  of  God  .         .         .         .132 

^-  The  Preacher's  Conception  of  God  to  be  practical  134 

—  Sj'mmetrical  Preaching     ......  135 

^^^  Variations  of  Preaching        .....  139 

Human  Need,  the  Preacher's  Guide           .         .         .  141 


VI.    The  Manifestation  of  God  through  Christ       .  143 

Christ's  Personality  the  Center  of  his  Instruction  .     144 

Christ  to  be  presented  historically          .         .         .  146 

Eelative  Importance  of  Chronological  Accuracy  .     146 

^^  The  Doctrine  of  Christ's  Divinity          .         .         .  148 

^^-^he  Trinity 150 

-■"^he  Atonement '  154 

^  The  New  Jerusalem  better  than  the  Old    .         .  .156 

Christ,  the  Revealer  of  God's  Personal  Disposition  157 


Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


Clirist,  tlie  Deliverer 15S 

Christ  to  act  through  the  Preacher's  Personality  .  160 

^  Human  Experience  to  interpret  the  Nature  of  Christ  162 

The  Sj)irit  of  Christ,  the  Central  Source  of  Power  164 


"•VII.    Views  of  the  Divine  Life  in  Human  Conditions 
The  Divine  Self-Consciousness  in  Jesus 
His  Social,  National,  and  Professional  Position 
His  Universal  Sympathy      .... 
His  Susceptibility  to  Personal  Atfectiou    . 
Attractiveness  of  Christ's  Bearing 
Jesus  not  a  Fault-Finder  ..... 
The  Preacher  must  make  Christ  desirable     . 
Christ's  Love  to  Sinners  ..... 
Preaching  must  be  enforced  by  Practice 
The  Traits  of  Jesus  expanded  to  Infinity  . 
The  Preacher's  Reward         .         .         .         . 


167 
168 
169 
172 
174 
177 
181 
183 
184 
186 
188 
189 


VIII.    Sins  and  Sinfulness 191 

Human  Sinfulness  a  Fundamental  Fact         .         .  191 
The  Scriptural  versus  the  Scholastic  Mode  of  dis- 
cussing it      .......         .  192 

The  Origin  of  Evil 194 

The  Nature  of  Sin 195 

The  Doctrine  of  Total  Depravity  ....  196 

The  Error  of  the  Unitarian  Doctrine          .         ,         .  199 

Difficulty  of  Right  Living 202 

The  Scientific  Confirmation  of  Bible  Doctrine   .         .  203 

Individual  Repentance          .....  205 

Hopefulness  of  Clirist's  Preaching     ....  207 

The  Germinant  Value  of  Morality         .         .         .  208 
Opposing  Dangers  of  Generic  Preaching    .         .         .212 

Specification  of  Characters 215 

IX.   The  Sense  of  Personal  Sin 218 

Conviction,  to  carry  Aspiration    .         .         .         .  218 
Experience  the  true  Text  to  preach  from  .         .         .219 

The  Generic  made  potent  by  the  Specific       .         .  222 

Scriptural  versus  Theological  Preaching    .         .         .  223 

Sympathy  with  Sinners 224 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


Knowledge  necessary  to  Sympathy  . 
Conventional  and  Ileal  Sins 
The  Sunday  Question 
Relative  Proportions  of  dififerent  Sins 
Relativity  of  Preaching    . 
Many  Roads  to  Conscience  . 
Sinfulness  to  be  preached  toward  Hope 
Christ's  Way        .        *j.       .         . 


-^  X,   The  Growth  of  Christian  Life 
Disciples  of  Christ 
The  Three  Elements 
Seed-Time  and  Harvest 
Beginning-Christians 
Infancy  needs  Protection 
The  First  Step 

Vivid  Experiences  exceptional 
The  Point  of  Change 
Urgency  for  Decision   . 
Earnest  Preaching    . 
Gradual  Concession 
Tlie  Use  of  Peeling  . 
Evidences  of  Conversion 
Disposition  the  Criterion 
After-Development 
The  Higher  Life 


XL   Christian  Manhood 

The  Aim  of  Paul's  Ministry 
The  Perfection  of  Human  Character 
The  true  Nature  of  JLan  . 
■Object  of  the  Christian  Ministry  . 
Human  Need  of  Education 
Love,  the  only  practical  Soul-Center 
Other  Faculties  tested 
The  Pauline  Conception 
Why  Paul  was  right 
The  Sun  of  Righteousness     . 
The  Perfect  Man      .... 
The  Preacher's  Mission 


CONTENTS. 


A^II.    Life  and  Immortality 

Immortality  in  the  Bible 
Efiect  of  Immortality  on  the  Mind    . 
Tlae  Reason  ..... 

The  Imagination      .... 
The  Conscience    ..... 
The  Affections  .... 

This  World,  in  the  Light  of  Immortality 
The  Bible  View  of  the  Future  . 
Administration  of  Hope  and  Fear 
Pictures  of  Heaven  .... 
Individual  Conceptions  of  Heaven 
A  Continuous  Sense  of  the  Infinite  . 
The  Joy  of  bringing  Comfort 
The  Preacher's  Refuge 


302 
303 
304 
304 
305 
307 
308 
309 
314 
315 
316 
319 
321 
323 
324 


Leotuees  o^  Preachii^g. 


I. 

THE   PEEACHER'S   BOOK. 

February  11,  1874. 
INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 

^"^i^^  MEET  you  again,  gentlemen,  with  mingled 
1^  pleasure  and  pain:  pleasure,  because  I  per- 
^5j|i2M  ceive  many  familiar  faces,  and  because  in  a 
^^  general  way  it  is  pleasant  to  perform  the 
tasks  that  are  allotted  to  me  ;  pain,  because  I  regard 
the  course  of  lectures  on  which  I  am  entering  this 
winter  as  by  far  the  most  difficult  of  all  that  I  have 
been  called  to  deliver.  It  will  take  me  over  the  very 
line  where  the  theological  storm  has  raged  through 
every  age ;  for  theology  is  a  perpetual  witness  of  the 
truth  of  the  Lord's  saying.  Said  he,  "  I  came  not  to 
send  peace  on  earth,  but  a  sword " ;  and  so  he  sent 
theologians  and  ecclesiastics  !  And,  as  you  are  aware, 
it  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  be  interjected  upon  a  regular 
course  like  this,  not  in  consultation  with  the  stated 
teachers  ;  not  knowing  what  grounds  they  are  laying 
out  for  you,  what  discriminations  they  are  making, 
what  advices  they  are  giving. 

VOL.    III.  1  A 


2  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

Certainly,  it  would  be  painful  for  me  to  stand  in 
your  midst,  and  find  myself  traversing  that  which  is 
regarded  by  your  teachers  as  sound  and  very  neces- 
sary in  the  equipment  of  ministers  for  the  field.  I  do 
not  much  feel  that  I  shall  traverse  the  substantial 
facts  that  underlie  all  theology ;  and  yet,  I  have  from 
the  very  beginning  of  my  ministry  worked  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  different  philosophy  from  that  which 
has  been  employed  in  times  past,  and  according  to  a 
different  method ;  so  that,  even  while  feeling  after  the 
same  great  truths  which  others  are  seeljing  for,  I  may 
place  them  in  lights  which  make  them  aj^parently  an- 
tagonistic, in  a  doctrinal  form,  to  those  that  were  held 
by  the  fathers,  or  are  held  by  my  brethren  in  the  min- 
istry. On  such  grounds,  therefore,  I  might  be  considered 
"  unsound,"  and  not  worthy  to  be  called  an  orthodox 
man.  And  yet,  in  regard  to  the  great  elements  of 
human  nature,  of  the  divine  nature,  of  the  essential 
principles  of  moral  government,  and  its  ends  and  aims, 
and  of  the  means  employed  in  the  great  scheme  of 
salvation  through  Jesus  Christ,  I  hold  myself  to  be 
perfectly  sound,  and,  if  anything,  sounder  than  other 
folks  ! 

So  it  really  is  a  kind  of  vacillation,  rather  than  anxi- 
ety, that  I  feel  in  speaking  to  you,  as  I  shall,  in  respect 
to  the  nature  of  man  as  universally  sinful,  but  suscep- 
tible of  development  out  of  animal  conditions  into 
spiritual  conditions  ;  and  in  respect  to  the  other  main 
doctrines  of  your  belief.  For  as  to  the  reality  and 
glory  of  a  personal  God,  revealed  to  us  in  the  New 
Testament,  in  three  persons,  —  in  other  words,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity ;   the  ever-blessed  truth  of  the 


THE  PREACHEK  S   BOOK.  3 

divinity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  the  history  of  his 
life-work,  constituting  substantially  an  atonement  for 
the  sins  of  the  world;  the  doctrine  of  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  sent  forth  from  God,  by  which  man, 
who  needs  to  be  born  out  of  natural  life  into  spiritual 
life,  is  regenerated  by  the  development  in  him  of  all- 
controlling  Christian  sentiments, — a  new  will  and  new 
spiritual  power ;  the  essential  elements  of  faith  and 
hope ;  the  great  truths  of  two- world  life  and  immortal- 
ity,—  in  regard  to  all  these  great,  substantial,  and  under- 
lying facts,  I  suppose  I  stand  with  the  good  men  who 
have  lived  since  the  day  that  Paul  left  the  earth ;  and 
I  hold  them  not  merely  in  curiosity,  nor  from  a  love  of 
their  logical  affinities  and  their  structural  fitness,  but  as 
the  wisdom  of  God  and  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 
It  is  my  errand  among  you  now  to  try  to  show  you 
how  you  may  do  by  the  great  truths  of  theology  that 
which  Paul  said  he  did,  namely,  use  them  as  God's 
wisdom  and  God's  power  for  the  salvation  of  men, — 
their  salvation,  through  a  change  into  a  salvable  dispo- 
sition, so  that  they  may  be  made  perfect  men  in  Christ 
Jesus.  And  if,  while  doing  this,  in  presenting  the  dif- 
ferent ways  in  which  doctrines  can  be  held  and  used,  I 
should  vary  from  the  ordinary  modes  of  teaching,  and 
if  many  of  you  think  the  variation  is  a  dangerous  one, 
all  I  can  say  is  this :  that  there  is  an  advantage  in 
seeing  things  in  different  lights,  and  that  there  will  be 
twelve  months  in  which  the  professorial  hoe  can  cut  up 
the  weeds  that  I  shall  have  so\vn  during  my  brief  six 
weeks  of  lecturing.  So  that,  if  I  make  errors,  and  they 
are  the  occasion  of  bringing  out  the  truth  more  strongly 
than  it  otherwise  would  have  been  brought  out,  and  with 


4  LECTURES   ON   PKEACHING. 

greater  interest  on  your  part,  I  am  willing  to  be  refuted 
and  set  at  naught  in  order  that  you  may  be  made 
stronger,  wiser,  and  better  ministers. 

SOURCES   OF  TRUTH. 

Before  I  enter  upon  the  main  theme  of  this  course 
of  lectures,  namely,  Functional  Theology,  as  distin- 
guished from  Structural  Theology,  —  Christian  doctrines, 
as  they  are  related,  not  to  the  building  up  of  a  system, 
but  to  the  development  of  the  living  character,  —  it  is 
proper  to  consider  the  sources  whence  the  pulpit  is  to 
derive  the  great  truths  which  it  employs  in  its  work 
upon  the  souls  of  men. 

SCIENCE. 

These  are  the  more  to  be  considered  because  we  have 
certainly  come  to  a  time  in  which  the  educated  mind 
is  tending  to  fall  off  from  the  teachings  of  the  pulpit. 
I  do  not  know  how  far,  in  the  country  districts  and 
quieter  towns,  the  educated  feeling  has  let  go  of  re- 
ligion, as  it  has  been  hitherto  taught  in  the  churches  ; 
but  I  am  confident  that  in  our  large  cities  and  centers, 
and  particularly  in  circles  of  artists,  of  scientists,  and 
of  literary  men,  there  is  an  essential  unclasping  of  the 
public  mind  in  this  respect ;  and  we  hear  thousands 
saying,  "The  pulpit  has  had  its  day;  these  old-fash- 
ioned doctrines  have  no  more  juice  in  them  ;  and,  ac- 
cording to  the  great  principle  of  evolution,  we  have  so 
far  grown  that  at  last  the  whole  world  is  becoming 
man's  text-book,  and  the  minister  ought  to  preach  to 
his  people  the  elements  of  sound  physical  life  -and 
health,  the  great  sociological  laws,  the  great  civil  laws. 


THE  PREACHERS   BOOK.  5 

and  the  great  laws  of  political  economy."  In  short, 
there  are  many  men  who  would  tell  you  that  now,  in 
the  light  that  has  been  growing  through  the  ages,  the 
time  has  come  in  which  Science  is  to  be  the  savior  of 
the  world,  that  the  minister  should  be  its  instrument, 
and  that  the  pulpit  should  be  the  place  where  it  is 
taught,  in  its  relations  to  life  and  duty. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  undervalue  science,  which  I 
believe  to  be  one  of  the  revelations  of  God  in  this 
world.  The  heavens  declare  his  glory,  and  the  earth 
shows  his  hand- work ;  and  if  rightly  understood,  and 
reverently  observed,  they  lead  us  back  to  God:  but 
physical  science  has  not  in  it  the  power  to  develop 
spirituality  in  man.  When  taught  only  upon  this 
lower  plane  of  knowledge,  —  namely,  'the  knowledge 
wliich  they  can  see,  and  hear,  and  smell,  and  taste,  and 
handle,  —  men  can  never  become  spiritual.  They  may 
have  some  slight  impetus  through  the  imagination  in 
that  direction,  —  for  even  scientists  are  beginning  to  say 
that  in  science  there  must  be  a  sphere  for  the  imagina- 
tion ;  but  those  profounder  depths  of  man,  out  of  which 
come  self-abnegation  and  sublime  enthusiasm,  those 
powers  which  lead  a  man  to  sacrifice  himself,  to  live 
joyfully  without  joy,  to  have  bread  without  wheat,  to 
have  light  without  vision,  to  be  j)owerful  by  the  world 
that  is  unseen  and  the  God  that  is  invisible,  to  have  a 
life  supreme,  dominating  over  other  lives,  —  these  you 
can  never  find  on  the  plane  of  mere  sensuous  knowl- 
edge. As  an  auxiliary,  material  science  is  invaluable ; 
but  it  touches  man  only  in  the  lower  sphere  of  life,  and 
never  exalts  him  into  that  higher  realm  upon  which 
he  may  enter  as  a  Christian. 


LECTTJKES   ON  PKEACHING. 


THE   CHUECH. 


It  is  thought  by  others  that  our  knowledge  should 
be  drawn  chiefly  from  the  revelation  of  God  through 
his  Church ;  and  that  in  the  Church,  in  its  economies, 
in  its  creeds,  and  esj)ecially  in  its  sacraments,  we  have 
elements  of  power  and  of  education  which  are  all-suffi- 
cient. And  under  these  impressions,  many  turn  them- 
selves to  the  Church.  Nor  do  I  wonder,  altogether, 
that  they  should  do  so ;  for  there  is  a  certain  sort  of 
weary  men,  who  will  tell  you  that  they  find  rest  in  the 
Church. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  a  correspondence  with  certain 
ladies  who  had  gone  into  a  convent  of  the  Eoman 
Catholic  Church,  and  who  were  amiably  desirous  that  I 
also  should  become  a  true  Christian.  The  point  which 
they  continually  made  with  me  was  that  they  never 
found  any  rest  until  they  went  into  the  Church,  but 
that  there  they  found  it.  And  this  fact  is  the  very 
argument  which  I  employ  to  show  that  the  external 
church  is  a  false  church.  For  I  observe  that  when 
water  is  pure  and  sweet,  it  is  always  moving :  here  it 
is  leaping  down  the  mountain-side ;  there  it  is  sliding 
smoothly,  though  only  for  a  while,  through  the  level 
stretches  of  the  meadows ;  yonder  it  is  plunging  again 
down  the  descent,  foaming,  and  cleansing  itself  by  foam- 
ing, in  the  air ;  and  when  at  last  it  reaches  the  deep 
pool,  it  comes  to  where  the  mud  settles,  slime  thick- 
ens, scum  gathers,  and  spores  breed.  In  stagnant  pools 
are  to  be  found,  it  is  true,  rest  and  quiet ;  but  death 
also  is  to  be  found  there. 

I  hold  that  in  this  world  it  was  not  designed  that 


THE  PKEACHERS   BOOK.  7 

men  should  rest.  I  hold  that  exercise,  or,  in  other 
words,  excitement,  is  the  indispensable  condition  of 
evolution  or  education ;  and  that  neither  the  outward 
world  nor  the  church  world  was  ever  designed  of  God 
to  be  constructed  so  that  a  man  should  find  things  as 
he  wants  them,  all  thought  out  for  him,  rules  being  laid 
down  for  every  part  of  his  life,  duties  being  prescribed 
for  every  hour  of  the  day,  and  doctrines  being  made  so 
clear  to  him  that  he  can  no  more  mistake  them  than 
the  mineralogist  can  mistake  the  facets  and  angles  of 
a  crystal ;  so  that  all  that  a  receptive  man  has  to  do  is 
to  go  into  the  Church,  and  count  the  things  which  are  to 
be  done,  and  do  them  in  their  order.  It  is  true  that  there 
is  little  to  do  under  such  circumstances.  There  are  less 
tasks,  and  there  are  fewer  responsibilities.  There  is  a 
sort  of  attraction  in  church  life,  to  many  natures,  on 
these  accounts.  But  it  is  not  in  any  such  way  that  God 
has  ever  educated  the  race,  and  it  is  not  in  any  such 
way  that  the  race  will  ever  be  educated.  And  yet,  as 
auxiliaries  to  the  true  method,  I  recognize  the  benefits 
of  church  orders  and  church  institutions,  and  especially 
in  the  claim  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church,  and  of 
the  Hierarchy  generally,  do  I  see  a  certain  element  of 
beauty  which  Protestants  do  not  like  to  recognize. 

That  God  does  present  the  truth  to  men  through  the 
Church  I  believe ;  for  I  hold  the  Church  to  be  the  body 
of  earnest  Christian-living,  right-thinking  men  in  every 
age.  It  is  stating  the  simplest  thing  in  the  M-orld  to 
say  that  our  knowledge  is  the  result  of  the  experience 
of  the  true  men  who  have  lived  in  the  past,  clear  down 
to  our  time ;  and  that  the  truth  is  to  be  learned,  not  in 
an  organic  church,  not  on  account  of  the  fact  that  there 


8  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

is  a  boundary  of  church  lines  and  beliefs,  but  for  the 
reason  that  it  is  a  part  of  the  evolution  which  God 
carries  on  in  society  at  large,  of  which  the  Church  may 
partake,  but  which  the  Church  lias  no  right  to  arrogate 
to  itself.  And  as  between  a  dead  record,  an  Egyptian 
hieroglyph  on  a  stone  or  column,  a  statement  written 
out  on  papyrus,  or  printed,  —  a  statement  that  is  just 
so  long,  and  just  so  broad,  and  that  cannot  be  changed 
one  whit,  —  as  between  this  and  the  theory  that  the 
truth  is  revealed  by  the  Spirit  in  the  living  moral  con- 
sciousness of  God's  peo'ple,  I  would  incomparably  rather 
have  the  latter. 

THE   BIBLE. 

Therefore  I  come  to  the  ground  that  the  sources  of 
truth  are  to  be  found  in  the  Word  of  God,  as  it  is  held, 
felt,  and  interpreted  by  the  living  reason  and  moral 
consciousness  of  Christian  men,  —  the  Word  of  God, 
not  as  a  dead  record,  but  as  interpreted  by  vital  souls, 
with  such  auxiliaries  as  they  can  receive,  namely,  the 
development  of  the  natural  world,  the  disclosures  of 
Divine  Providence,  the  exj)eriences  of  good  men,  and 
the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

A  Bible  alone  is  nothing.  A  Bible  is  what  the  man 
is  who  stands  beliind  it,  —  a  book  of  hieroglyphics,  if  he 
be  nothing  but  a  spiritual  Champollion  ;  a  book  of  rit- 
uals, if  he  be  nothing  but  a  curiosity-monger,  or  an 
ingenious  framer  of  odds  and  ends  of  things  ;  and  a 
valuable  guide,  full  of  truth  and  full  of  benefit  for  man- 
kind, if  he  be  a  great  soul  filled  with  living  thought. 
What  the  Bible  is,  is  shown  in  the  men  who  use  it. 
It  is  not  in  the  letter  that  the  Word  of  God  has  power. 


THE   preacher's   BOOK.  9 

but  in  the  spirit ;  and  the  living  man  is  that  spirit; 
and  as  far  as  he,  ^^sing  the  Word  of  God,  takes  it  up 
into  himself,  and  bears  it  out  to  others,  so  far  he  is  the 
Bible  for  the  time  being.  And  in  your  ministry  this 
vitalized  Bible  is  the  main  source  of  the  power  which 
you  are  to  wield  as  Christian  preachers. 

ITS   AIM,  —  SPIRITUAL   DEVELOPMENT    OF   MAN. 

Let  me  speak  some  words  more,  then,  in  respect  to 
the  Bible,  which  is  the  fountain  whence  we  must  all  of 
us  draw.  And  in  the  first  place  I  wish  to  say  that  we 
find  in  this  book  (and  nowhere  else  that  I  know  of, 
except  where  it  has  exerted  its  influence)  the  aim  to 
unfold  mankind  hy  a  'moral  j^oioer  which  is  developed 
within  them. 

There  have  been  educating  forces  of  various  kinds 
in  existence  since  the  world  began ;  but  I  know  of 
no  otlier  source  besides  the  sacred  Canon  that  has  so 
consistently  poured  forth  such  a  stream  of  influence. 
From  the  earliest  of  the  records,  without  disconnection^ 
and  without  its  being  ostentatiously  proclaimed,  but  in 
reality,  down  to  the  last  letter  of  the  last  book,  the 
Holy  Scriptures  have  one  genius,  namely,  the  exertion 
of  a  power  for  the  development  of  men,  not  as  animals, 
nor  even  as  social  creatures,  but  as  moral  beings,  pos-. 
sessing  the  germs  of  the  Divine  nature,  and  to  be  devel- 
oped by  the  infusion  of  the  Divine  Spirit  upon  their 
higher  faculties.  That  truth  dawned  in  the  earliest 
ages.  It  was  taught  by  the  prophets,  it  appeared  in 
the  most  disastrous  periods  of  Jewish  history  again 
and  again,  leading  to  temporary  reformations  ;  it  broke 
out  more  potently  and  more  gloriously  in  the  New 
1* 


10  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

Testament  dispensation ;  and  to  the  preaching  of  it  by 
the  Apostles  during  the  last  days  of  that  epoch  there 
has  been  no  parallel,  that  I  know  of.  So,  the  genius  of 
the  Bible  is  the  development  of  man  into  a  spiritual 
creature. 

When  men  tell  me,  therefore,  that  the  Bible  is  a  col- 
lection of  books  (or  a  "  clutter "  of  books,  as  they  are 
sometimes  pleased  to  call  it),  written  in  different  ages, 
in  different  languages,  from  different  standpoints,  and 
by  different  men,  and  that  there  are  a  thousand  dis- 
crepancies in  it,  I  say  that  there  is  one  spinal  cord 
which  runs  through  it  from  the  beginning  to  the  end, 
but  of  the  importance,  the  power,  and  the  glory  of 
which-  the  world  has  been  largely  unconscious,  — 
namely,  the  development,  by  education,  of  the  essential 
nature  of  man,  his  true  nature,  out  of  the  animal,  and 
out  of  the  lower  forms  of  society-life,  into  the  higher 
spiritual  form.  The  Bible  is  instinct  with  that  element, 
and  glows  with  it  all  the  way  through.  Nowhere  else 
can  you  find  such  inexhaustible  stores  in  that  direction 
as  in  the  Word  of  God. 

ITS   TENDER   SYMPATHY. 

Then,  it  is  a  book  which  overflows  with  sympathy 
for  men.  We  like  those  who  like  us,  and  what  thank 
have  we  ?  We  salute  those  who  salute  us,  and  what 
thank  have  we  ?  Kings  always  like  kings,  especially 
when  they  have  got  them  under ;  philosophers  are  apt 
to  think  well  of  philosophers  ;  rich  men  think  well  of 
rich  men ;  friends  think  well  of  friends ;  connections 
think  well  of  kindred ;  men  love  to  praise  men  of  their 
own  nation.     But  here,  in  the  midst  of  the  history  of 


THE  PKEACHER's   BOOK.  11 

rude  selfishness  and  class-instincts  and  personal  pref- 
erences, we  have  a  book,  coming  to  us  in  fragments, 
little  by  httle  accumulating,  which  all  through,  from  be- 
ginning to  end,  looks  at  man  in  the  most  sympathetic 
and  tender  relations,  not  because  of  agreeable  or  har- 
monious qualities,  but  on  account  of  his  imperfections, 
just  as  a  mother  looks  at  the  cradle.  She  looks  at  the 
cradle,  not  on  account  of  what  the  child  says,  —  it  does 
not  talk ;  not  on  account  of  what  the  child  does,  —  it 
does  nothing ;  nor  does  she  look  at  the  child  altogether 
on  account  of  what  it  is  to  be  :  she  looks  at  it  on  ac- 
count of  its  weakness  and  helplessness,  and  its  need  of 
her  fidelity  and  love  and  care.  Now,  in  tlie  Word  of 
God  we  have  the  mother-instinct  all  the  way  through, 
—  a  tender  sympathy  for  man,  as  poor,  as  weak,  as 
ignorant,  as  degraded,  as  sinful,  as  damnable.  Because 
he  is  so  sinful  the  Bible  has  infinite  compassion  upon 
him.  It  breathes  tliis  spirit  toward  him  in  all  its  rela- 
tions, from  beginning  to  end. 

Men  go  back  to  the  Old  Testament,  questioning  and 
searching,  to  ascertain  whether  there  is  a  revelation  of 
the  Messiah ;  and  of  the  atonement ;  and  of  the  divine 
nature ;  or  whether  there  are  symbols  of  these  things : 
but  I  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  very  breath  of  the 
Old  Testament  is  the  same  breath  that  prayed,  dying, 
on  Calvary  ;  and  that  the  bosom  that  gives  nutriment 
in  the  Xew  Testament  is  the  same  bosom  that  fed 
God's  people  in  the  Old  Testament,  both  of  them  being 
instinct  with  sympathy  for  men,  not  because  they  have 
genius,  because  they  have  attained  to  wealth  and  posi- 
tion, because  they  are  strong  and  successful;  but  be- 
cause they  are  poor  and  needy. 


12  LECTUKES   ON   PREACHING. 

Now,  when  you  consider  that  this  book  has  come  np 
from  barbaric  ages,  amid  warring  thrones  and  bloody- 
footed  armies,  the  world  groaning  and  travailing  with 
cruelties  everywhere,  and  men,  like  waste  material,  like 
mud  in  the  streets,  being  trampled  under  foot  by  power ; 
when  you  consider  that  through  dark  periods  of  the 
world  this  book  came  up,  little  by  little,  breathing  the 
spirit  of  humanity  all  the  time,  —  do  you  tell  me  that 
it  was  an  accident,  and  that  I  need  those  exterior  and 
scholastic  arguments  for  its  divinity  which  men  seem 
to  think  will  affirm  it  ?     No,  verily ! 

ITS   ADAPTEDNESS   TO    COMMON   LIFE. 

Then  I  find  another  thing,  namely,  that  it  is  a  book 
which  is  pitched  to  the  key  of  common  life,  and  not  to 
an  artificial  key.  Many  a  man  wishes  that  the  Bible 
had  not  been,  in  some  respects,  just  wliat  it  is.  Many 
people  wish  that  the  Bible  produced  more  sudden  and 
startling  sensation,  or  that  it  constantly  had  tremendous 
strokes  in  it,  which  should  overawe  the  minds  of  men, 
or  fascinate  their  imaginations.  Many  persons  want 
the  Bible  to  act  on  men  as  Sinai  acted  on  the  common 
people  who  were  at  its  base ;  and  if  it  had  acted  on 
them  thus,  they  would  have  been  affected  about  as  the 
Israelites  were,  who,  hearing  the  voice  of  the  thunder 
and  worshiping  God  one  day,  danced  around  a  calf 
the  next. 

Now  I  find,  in  going  through  the  Bible,  scarcely  a 
single  element  which  when  it  was  written  was  not 
familiar  to  the  minds  of  the  common  people.  In  other 
words,  it  took  its  keynote  from  those  great  qualities 
which  are  common  to  humanity,  and  addressed  itself  to 


THE  PKEACHEE'S   BOOK.  13 

them.  In  every  age,  and  in  all  nations,  men  are  very 
much  alike  ;  the  great  underlying  element  of  humanity 
is  the  same  in  all  race-stocks.  Men  are  said  to  have 
sprung  from  five  primitive  stocks.  I  believe  that  the 
revered  Agassiz  and  others  have  thought  that  the  race 
proceeded  from  twenty  different  stocks.  I  do  not 
know  about  that ;  but  of  this  ^  I  am  sure,  that  if  they 
did  start  from  twenty  different  stocks,  they  all  had  the 
same  mold;  because  it  is  beyond  all  conception  or 
belief,  it  is  out  of  the  question,  that  there  should  have 
been  five,  or  ten,  or  fifteen,  or  twenty  variations  of 
nature ;  that  there  should  have  been  numerous  differ- 
entiations resulting  in  man,  and  that  these  differentia- 
tions should  have  produced  men  so  exactly  alike ;  that 
the  basilar  faculties,  and  the  perceptive  faculties,  and 
the  reflective  faculties  should  have  been  so  identical  in 
all  the  race  that  one  man  could  understand  another, 
and  that  men  of  different  stocks  could  reason  with  each 
other.     Such  a  thing  would  be  an  impossibility. 

What  I  say  is,  that  in  the  one  comprehensive  race, 
in  all  the  minor  races  included  in  it,  there  are  certain 
underlying  particulars  which  are  the  same ;  and  the 
word  of  God  addresses  itself  to  them.  To  be  sure,  we 
have  in  it  some  philosophical  language,  but  what  was 
philosophy  in  those  days  of  the  world  when  the  Bible 
was  constructed  ?  Solomon,  it  is  true,  had  some  time 
(aside  from  his  domestic  cares)  in  which  to  philoso- 
phize ;  but  compare  the  philosophy  of  President  Porter 
with  the  proverbs  of  Solomon,  Compare  Cousin's 
writings,  compare  Sir  William  Hamilton's  writings, 
compare  the  writings  of  any  modern  master  of  philoso- 
phy, with   the  philosophy  of  the  olden  time.     Then, 


14  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

philosophy  was  a  collection  of  proverbs.  It  was  the 
wisdom  of  the  people  reduced  to  its  uarrowest,  sim- 
plest, and  most  striking  form  ;  so  that  nowhere  in  the 
Old  Testament  is  there  a  large  generic  view  of  the 
moral  government  of  God  over  this  world.  There  is 
nowhere  in  the  early  writings  of  the  Bible  any  syste- 
matic teaching  in  respect  to  human  nature. 

In  our  day  men  wonder  at  Bishop  Butler's  writings, 
and  speak  of  him  as  the  originator,  in  his  time,  of  new 
schools,  which,  as  it  were,  sprang  from  his  loins.  I  do 
not  undertake  to  say  that  he  taught  the  presence  of 
that  same  divine  creative  genius  in  the  natural  world 
which  is  pointed  out  all  the  way  through  the  Bible, 
and  in  harmony  with  which  the  Bible  itself  is  con- 
structed ;  but  although  he  did  not  say  expressly  what 
he  thought,  beyond  a  question  he  did  think  that  the 
Bible  was  the  highest  and  the  sublimest  part  of  the 
natural  world,  and  that  it  was  natural,  not  in  the  sense 
in  which  we  speak  of  nature  as  degraded,  but  in  the 
sense  that  it  belonged  to  that  unitary  work  in  which 
things  physical,  things  social,  things  intellectual,  and 
things  moral  are  intersphering  and  moving  together. 
Without  a  doubt  it  was  his  belief  that  the  creation  of 
God's  Word  is  part  and  parcel  of  tlie  whole  advance- 
ment which  is  taking  place  in  mankind. 

ITS   WEALTH   OF   MATERIAL. 

In  the  natural  world  we  never  find  tools  ready  made, 
we  never  find  implements  constructed  for  our  use, 
we  never  find  machines,  varied  and  complicated,  with 
which  to  carry  on  the  processes  of  life ;  but  we  find 
iron  in  the  earth,  out  of  which  to  make  these  things. 


THE  pheacher's  book.  15 

"We  never  find,  in  the  natural  world,  knives  and  lancets 
to  our  hands  ;  but  we  find  there  the  ore  out  of  which 
steel  is  made  for  their  manufacture.  In  the  natural 
world  we  find  the  raw  material  for  the  supply  of  our 
physical  wants  ;  and  it  is  our  business  to  take  this  raw 
material  and  work  it  up. 

JSTow,  the  Word  of  God  is  filled  full  of  material  for 
philosopliy,  but  there  is  no  philosophy  in  it.  It  is 
full  of  material  for  constructing  a  theory  of  human  life, 
but  there  is  no  theory  of  human  life  in  it.  It  is  full 
of  material  for  ethics,  but  there  is  no  system  of  ethics 
laid  down  in  it.  It  does  not  contain  a  prescribed 
system.  On  the  same  princij^le  that  it  is  said  to  a  man 
in  the  natural  world,  "  Work  or  starve,  dig  or  go  with- 
out iron,"  it  is  said  to  him  in  the  word  of  God,  "  There 
is  nothing  prepared  for  you  here."  The  Bible  is  a 
great  book  stored  with  much  that  is  beautiful  and  valu- 
able, and  which  men  can  gain  by  digging  and  working 
it,  as  ore  from  a  mine,  but  in  no  other  way. 

The  Bible,  tlien,  while  it  is  in  analogy  with  the  de- 
velopment of  God's  providence  in  every  other  spliere, 
has  this  advantage,  that  it  is  a  book  which  aims  at  the 
level  of  exery  man's  understanding.  Out  of  it  can  be 
formed  rules  and  schemes  for  the  conduct  of  life,  as 
from  the  wool  on  a  sheep's  back  you  can  form  a  gar- 
ment. You  can  shear  the  wool ;  then  wdth  deft  fingers 
on  the  wheel,  you  can  draw  the  thread  out  a  thousand 
times  longer  than  it  grew  ;  then  vou  can  twist  it  and 
dye  it  with  colors  that  it  never  had  before ;  then  you 
can  put  it  into  the  loom,  whose  shuttles  swing  back  and 
forth  almost  like  intelligent  messengers,  and  make  the 
fabric  ;  and  then  you  can  fashion  it  into  a  garment. 


16  LECTURES    ON   PREACHING. 

This  garalent  did  not  grow  on  the  sheep's  back ;  but 
all  the  way  along  it  has  been  in  the  workshop  of  the 
human  brain.  It  was  man  that  made  it,  although  the  ma- 
terial out  of  which  it  was  made  came  from  the  sheep. 

Now,  what  worlds  of  thouglit  there  have  been ! 
What  vast  evolutions  there  have  been  in  the  realm 
of  mind  !  What  disclosures  there  have  been  in  the 
higher  spheres  of  knowledge !  How  illimitable  has 
been  the  scope  of  living  exj)erience  !  What  prophecies 
there  have  been  !  How  much  has  been  set  forth  in 
poetry  !  What  historical  records  have  been  made  !  In 
ten  thousand  forms  there  have  been  arguments  and 
teachings  in  schools  and  churches.  There  have  been 
pliilosophies  multitudinous  and  multifarious.  Of  sta- 
tistics there  has  been  no  end.  Vast  has  been  the  out- 
come of  those  things.  And  the  germs  of  them  all 
were  and  are  in  the  Bible.  Germs  so  simple  are  they, 
that  the  plainest  man,  that  even  a  child,  could  under- 
stand them. 

The  Bible,  therefore,  is  a  book  for  men,  and  for  men 
that  are  low  down  in  the  scale,  —  for  to  this  day  nine 
tenths  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe  are  but  children, 
or  are  less  intelligent  than  children  among  us.  So  tliat 
the  great  work  of  the  Bible  in  the  world  has  begun, 
but  not  ended.  It  was  made  to  meet  the  wants  of  com- 
mon men,  or  men  less  than  common ;  it  is  in  sympathy 
with  them  ;  it  is  formed  out  of  material  which  can  be 
shaped  to  their  need ;  and  its  methods  are  within  their 
easy  reach. 

You  think  that  when  you  preach  you  must  preach 
so  as  to  touch  the  top  heads  in  your  congregation. 
Touch  the  bottom  and  you  wiU  be  sure  to  touch  tlie 


THE  PKEACHER'S   BOOK.  17 

top.  He  that  puts  a  jackscrew  under  the  roof  is  not 
going  to  raise  the  whole  building ;  but  he  who  puts 
a  jackscrew  under  the  sills .  of  a  building,  and  raises 
them  up,  will,  I  think,  take  up  everything  that  is  above 
them.  And  in  preaching,  the  man  who  is  in  dead 
earnest,  who  is  inflamed  by  divine  love,  and  who 
preaches  so  that  the  lowest  and  poorest  of  his  congre- 
gation understand  him  and  are  stirred  by  what  he  says, 
and  are  lifted  up  by  the  power  of  the  truth  as  he  pre- 
sents it,  —  does  he  not  lift  everybody  else  up  too  ? 

THE  VALUE   OF   ITS   WASTE   ilATTER, 

I  want  to  say  another  thing  about  the  Bible ;  for 
I  am  held  to  be  so  erratic  on  many  subjects,  that  I  must 
make  my  calling  and  election  sure  where  I  can  ! 

I  glory  in  its  chaff  and  straw.  People  ask  me,  fre- 
quently, "  Is  there  not  a  great  deal  in  the  Bible  that  is 
useless  ? "  Yes,  there  is,  —  commentators,  for  instance, 
often  !  "  But,"  say  they,  "  are  there  not  a  great  many 
histories,  and  stories,  and  such  like  things,  that  could 
be  purged  out  from  the  Bible  with  great  advantage  ? " 
Well,  I  should  like  to  know  what  you  would  do  for 
wheat  if  you  had  the  same  contempt  for  straw  in  April 
and  ]\Iay  that  you  have  in  July  and  August.  What  is 
your  wheat  in  the  spring  ?  A  little  sucking  babe. 
Viliat  is  your  straw  then  ?  A  full-breasted  mother 
feeding  the  wheat.  What  is  the  chaff  but  the  bosom 
of  the  plant  ?  It  is  the  mother's  arm  around  it,  pro- 
tecting it  and  carrying  it.  "  It  is  nothing  but  chaff  and 
straw,"  men  say ;  but,  I  tell  you,  the  farmer  talks  about 
chaff  and  straw  one  way  in  spring  and  another  way  in 
autumn. 


18  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

Now,  since  the  Word  of  God  was  gradually  con- 
structed; since  it  was  upbuilt  through  two  thousand 
years  ;•  since  its  method  was  the  development  of  truth 
through  experience,  through  a  revelation  of  God  by 
the  experience  of  holy  men ;  one  thing  coming  out  by 
mistake,  another  thing  coming  out  by  forethought ; 
some  virtues  being  made  clearer  by  corresponding 
vices,  the  bitterness  of  which  taught  men  the  right 
way,  broken  laws  teaching  men  where  laws  should  be 
infrangible  ;  since  all  parts  of  the  Word  of  God  have 
been  applied  as  they  were  wrought  out,  all  along,  in 
this  way,  are  not  these  old  wrecks,  these  broken  com- 
mandments, these  mistakes  and  stumblings,  invaluable 
in  the  history  of  the  evolution  of  the  moral  sense  of 
mankind  ?  Is  it  for  us,  because  the  record  of  these 
things  remains  in  history,  to  scoft'  and  scorn  them  ?  I 
honor  the  chaff  and  the  straw.  I  like  to  see  where  the 
truths  of  the  Bible  got  their  effulgence ;  where  their 
roots  were  ;  where  they  grew  ;  what  took  care  of  them ; 
what  their  primitive  forms  were. 

We  have  some  analogies  to  these  things  in  the  pres- 
ent. You  do  not  need  to  go  four  thousand  years  back 
to  see  antiquity.  It  is  right  under  our  feet,  and  every- 
where about  us.  We  see  it  where  men  are  living 
squalid,  like  savages.  Antiquity  is  in  our  very  midst. 
Much  that  the  Bible  contains  you  may  not  want  in 
elegant  leisure  ;  you  may  not  want  it  in  poetical  ease ; 
you  may  not  want  it  in  philosophical  enjoyment ;  there 
maybe  circumstances  in  this  later  civilization,  in  which 
you  do  not  want  it  —  or  think  you  do  not :  but  it  is  a 
book  that  mankind  need  ;  it  is  a  book  for  mankind ;  it  is 
a  book  of  mankind ;  and  there  is  no  greater  mistake  that 


THE   PKEACHEE's   BOOK.  19 

men  are  making  than  the  criticising  the  Bible  from 
their  own  selfish  standpoint ;  do  not  say  of  any  part  of 
the  Bible,  "  I  do  not  -want  this,  and  therefore  nobody 
wants  it.'' 

ITS   HARMOXY   WITH   ADYAXCIXG   TRUTH. 

Let  me  only  hint  at  one  other  thing.  You  know 
that  we  are  all  of  us  under  very  great  alarm,  just  now, 
because  ]Mr.  Darwin  is  going  to  take  away  Christianity  ; 
and  it  is  proper  that  all  of  us  who  are  orthodox  should 
shake  our  heads  wisely  when  his  name  is  mentioned, 
or  when  his  philosophy  is  sj)oken  of.  Far  be  it  from 
me,  therefore,  to  say  anything  in  favor  of  ~Mv.  Darwin ! 
But  he  has  read  his  Bible,  evidently,  and  has  taken 
many  ideas  from  Paul ;  for  I  find  that  Paul's  theory  of 
the  natural  man,  and  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  of  the  ani- 
mal man,  are  very  near  together ;  and  that  the  whole 
line  of  apostolic  thought  in  regard  to  the  inner  man 
and  the  outer  man  has  a  strange  resemblance  to  the 
thoui^ht  which  j\Ii-.  Darwin  is  feeling  after.  You  will 
observe  that  Paul  went  so  far  as  to  almost  deny  his 
own  personality,  as  an  animal.  He  says,  "  There  is  a 
law  of  the  flesh,  there  is  a  beast-law,  in  me,  and  there 
is  also  in  me  a  law  of  the  spirit,  a  God-law ;  and  these 
two  laws  are  not  reconciled.  The  animal  runs  away 
with  me  every  day :  I  hold  on,  but  he  runs  away  with 
me ;  and  as  not  the  animal,  but  the  higher  spiritual 
man  is  I,  it  is  not  I  that  sin,  but  the  animal.  I 
dwell  in  a  body  that  sins.  Here  is  an  inner  man 
and  an  outer  man  ;  an  upper  man  and  an  under  man ; 
a  spiritual  man  and  an  animal  man."  This  idea  runs 
all   the   way  through  Paul's   epistles.      Not  only  so, 


20  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

but  all  the  way  through  the  Bible  there  is  a  representa- 
tion of  man  as  being  a  creature  of  time,  a  creature  with 
a  lower  nature,  but  with  the  germs  of  a  higher  nature 
in  him,  which  is  developing  slowly  toward  the  highest 
elevation  that  it  is  capable  of  reaching;  it  is  only 
when  this  higher  nature  is  developed  so  that  the  light 
of  God's  soul  is  struck  through  it,  and  it  is  in  affinity 
with  the  Divine,  that  the  man  is  an  unfolded  child  of 
God.  And  he  cannot  get  the  power  of  such  develop- 
ment until  he  grows  in  the  sunshine  of  God's  own 
soul ;  until  the  mind  and  Avill  and  heart  of  God  touch 
his  mind  and  will  and  heart. 

But  above  all  and  beyond  all  this  philosophy,  phys- 
ical or  metaphysical,  that  can  be  found  in  its  germ- 
forms  in  the  Bible,  is  that  representation  which  is  made 
of  the  ideal  God.  By  the  ideal  God  I  do  not  mean  any 
fictitious  and  poetic  conception  of  God  ;  I  mean  that 
view  of  God  which  M^e  frame  by  the  best  effort  of  our 
understanding,  with  all  our  imagination  working  in  the 
great  invisible  moral  realm. 

THE   DIVINE   STRENGTH   OF   ITS   INFANCY. 

I  know  that  truth  is  slow  in  developing.  If  you  were 
to  find  a  perfect  alphabet  in  a  savage's  hut,  you  would 
say  that  it  was  brought  there.  If  it  could  be  shown 
that  a  savage  had  invented  a  new  language,  and  was 
using  it,  it  would  be  considered  an  anomaly.  It  would 
be  so  different  from  the  ordinary  experience  of  men  in 
all  time,  that  no  man  would  believe  it. 

Nothing  impresses  me  more  than  to  go  back  and  see 
how  the  patriarchs  lived.  Abraham,  a  respectable  old 
sheikh  of  the  desert,  hardly  ever  said  or  did  anything 


THE   PEEACHER'S   BOOK.  21 

worth  remembering.  He  was  powerless,  comparatively 
speaking.  Isaac  was  a  very  mild  shadow  of  his  father. 
Jacob  was  a  substantial  man,  to  be  sure ;  he  was  politic 
and  diplomatic ;  he  was  a  good  manager,  —  a  very  ex- 
cellent manager.  And  while  I  look  upon  the  charac- 
ters of  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  I  cannot  under- 
stand how  they  could  have  been  so  dear  to  the  Jews. 
Measuring  by  the  ordinary  ideas  of  our  time,  we  can- 
not see  what  great  thoughts  or  great  developments  ever 
came  out  of  their  brains ;  though  out  of  their  experi- 
ence grew  that  helpful  conception  of  God  as  the  de- 
fense and  the  recompense  of  the  faithful,  —  "I  am  thy 
shield  and  thy  exceeding  great  reward."  And  then, 
take  that  declaration  of  God  to  Moses  in  the  thirty- 
fourth  chapter  of  Exodus.  I  think  the  conception  there 
given,  where  God  reveals  his  moral  nature  to  Moses,  at 
his  supplication,  —  the  majesty  of  it,  the  fullness  of  it, 
the  quality  of  it,  the  proportion  of  it,  and  the  drift  of 
it,  —  is  something  more  than  sublime.  There  is  noth- 
ing in  the  New  Testament  that  surpasses  it.  The  ]^ew 
Testament  indeed  may  be  said  to  be  but  a  paraphrase 
of  it. 

Now,  how  can  you  account  for  the  fact  that  there 
stands  that  magnificent  conception  of  Jehovah,  which 
was  revealed  to  Aloses  in  the  beginning,  —  that  same 
conception  which  crops  out  again  and  again  in  the 
prophets,  and  all  the  way  down  through  the  Scriptures, 
witli  more  and  more  clearness  until  the  time  of  Jesus 
Christ,  when  in  him  we  had  the  full  manifestation  of 
God? 

Eemember  that  this  was  in  a  dynastic  age.  Eemem- 
ber  that  God  gave  out  his  life  clearly  in  an  age  when 


22  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

men  were  but  little  above  the  animals,  and  wlien  the 
senses  gave  law  and  ethics  to  the  world. 

THE   DIVINE   IDEA   OF   DIVINITY. 

And  what  is  the  conception  of  God  which  runs 
through  the  Old  Testament,  and  all  the  way  down  ? 
Compare  it  with  the  Grecian  conception  of  him,  and 
then  with  the  Eoman,  which  was  subsequent  to  it. 
Compare  it  with  the  Assyrian  notion  of  the  Divine 
nature.  Compare  it  with  all  the  collateral  ideas  of 
God  which  existed.  Not  that  there  are  not  correct  and 
noble  points,  here  and  there,  in  all  mythologies  and 
religions ;  but  take  the  conceptions  of  Jehovah  and  of 
Jesus  which  we  find  in  the  New  Testament,  —  what 
are  they  ?  They  are  not  simply  conceptions  of  power : 
they  are  essentially  conceptions  of  character.  And 
more  than  that,  they  are  conceptions  of  character  in 
the  relations  of  love  to  mankind ;  and  not  in  the  rela- 
tions of  love  alone,  but  in  the  relations  of  self-sacrifice 
as  well.  Long  before  these  ideas  ever  appeared  in 
philosophy  or  in  poetry,  there  was  lifted  up  in  the 
early  ages  a  sublime  idea  of  God  as  one  who  carried 
the  world  in  his  arms,  as  a  mother  carries  her  child 
in  her  bosom.  This  idea  grew  stronger  and  stronger, 
until  the  Saviour  in  glory  bowed  his  head  and  came 
down  to  earth,  and  was  not  ashamed  to  be  called  a 
man  and  a  brother,  and  declared  that  he  came  not  to 
destroy,  but  to  save  ;  that  he  came  to  give  life,  not  to 
take  life  ;  that  he  came  to  show  that  greatness  was 
service  rendered,  and  not  service  accepted.  He  washed 
his  disciples'  feet,  and  said, "  I,  your  Lord,  have  done 
this,"  —  how?  why?  —  "to  teach  you  what  you  should 


THE   preacher's   BOOK.  23 

do ;  to  teach  you  what  is  the  rule  of  moral  life  and 
character ;  to  teach  you  what  is  mercy  ;  to  teach  you 
what  is  the  nature  of  the  Godhead ;  to  teach  you  that 
it  is  not  will,  not  power,  not  control,  not  sovereignty, 
but  that  it  is  service.  The  Divine  idea  is  that  of 
the  greater  serving  the  less ;  of  the  stronger  serving 
the  weaker;  of  the  richer  serving  the  poorer;  of  the 
better  serving  those  that  are  less  good.  It  is  the 
eternal  nature  of  God  to  give  himself  for  men,  that 
they  may  be  lifted  up  out  of  their  lowness  and  meager- 
ness  unto  him.  Now,  this  view  is  to  be  found  regnant 
all  through  the  Bible,  from  beginniHg  to  end ;  and  it 
is  to  be  found  nowhere  else,  that  I  know  of,  as  it  is 
in  that  book.  It  has  been  hinted  at  in  sermons  and 
essays  and  all  manner  of  tractates,  but  it  is  much  more 
largely  developed  in  the  "Word  of  God  than  it  has  ever 
been  out  of  it.  It  is  the  slowest  and  last  thing  for  men 
to  learn. 

I  do  not  understand  this  to  be  the  ided!  of  Calvinism 
and  Augustinianism.  I  hold  Calvinism  to  teach  the 
sovereignty  of  absolute  will  and  wisdom.  Every  man 
is  a  Calvinist,  no  matter  what  church  he  belongs  to, 
who  has  a  great  deal  of  will,  and  thinks  it  ouglit  to 
dominate  !  Calvinism  illustrates  the  monarchical  idea 
rather  than  the  idea  of  fatherhood.  !Men  have  repre- 
sented God  as  being  sovereign.  It  is  said  that  he 
made  all  things,  and  that  because  he  made  them  he 
has  a  right  to  do  just  as  he  pleases  with  them.  It  is 
claimed  that,  having  created  men,  he  has  a  right  to 
raise  up  some  and  dash  down  otliers.  "When  applied 
to  the  will  of  God  as  dealing  with  matter,  I  assent  to 
this ;  but  when  applied  to  the  Divine  will  as  dealing 


24  LECTUEES   ON   PREACHING. 

with  the  destinies  of  men,  not  only  in  time,  but 
throughout  eternity,  I  protest  against  it.  I  say  that 
the  God  of  Calvinism  is  not  the  God  of  Calvary.  To 
teach  that  God,  because  he  is  the  greatest,  and  has  the 
most  wisdom,  and  is  the  most  powerful,  has  a  right  to 
rule  arbitrarily,  is  contrary  to  the  teaching  of  the  Gos- 
pel. My  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  when  he  washed  the  dis- 
ciples' feet,  taught  that  he  who  would  be  most  like 
God  should  be  willing  to  do  the  lowest  services,  and  to 
do  them  to  the  poorest  and  most  degraded  of  his  fel- 
low-men. That  is  the  mark  of  divinity !  I  find  this 
nowhere  so  forcibly  and  wondrously  illustrated  as  in 
the  New  Testament. 

GREAT  PREACHERS. 

Tlie  Bible  is  the  preacher's  book,  not  only  because  of 
these  things,  but  because  in  its  latter  stages  you  have 
the  pattern  preachers  portrayed.  Paul,  for  instance,  I 
consider  the  gf  eatest  of  preachers.  He  was  a  man  who 
used  his  whole  life-force  in  behalf  of  his  fellows,  to 
imbue  them  with  the  truth,  and  with  motives  for  seek- 
ing a  higher  development  and  striving  after  salva- 
tion. He  was  a  man  who  put  all  the  resources  of  his 
genius  at  the  disposal  of  those  who  were  about  him. 
He  was  unmatched  in  Jewish  education.  He  had  an 
extraordinary  wealth  of  tenderness.  Though  he  had 
great  susceptibility  and  great  pride,  yet  he  carried  him- 
self with  great  humility  among  the  discordant  elements 
which  surrounded  him.  Next  to  Christ,  I  like  to  look 
at  this  man  Paul,  and  contemplate  his  character  and 
his  work.  Indeed,  he  walked  almost  a  Christ  among 
men.     How  various  were  his  talents  !     How  admirable 


THE   preacher's   BOOK.  25 

was  his  employment  of  them !  What  a  similarity 
there  was  between  his  sensibility  and  tenderness,  and 
the  simplicity  and  sweetness  and  gentleness  and  quiet 
majesty  of  Christ.  Paul,  being  proud,  \vas  sensitive 
to  all  men's  thoughts,  so  that,  as  he  declared,  he  died 
daily.  And  he  often  refers  to  himself  in  his  writings. 
There  is  not  a  letter  of  his  that  does  not  indicate  his 
consciousness  of  what  he  suffered,  or  felt,  or  did ;  Ego, 
blessed  Ego,  —  made  blessed  everywhere  throughout 
his  writings !  This  was  the  man  who  was  willing  to 
spend  and  be  spent.  "What  is  more  matchless  than 
this  declaration  ?  — 

"  I  will  very  gladly  spend  and  be  spent  for  you,  though 
the  more  abundantly  I  love  you,  the  less  I  be  loved." 

This  man,  who  knew  nothing  but  to  throw  a  blaze 
of  light  upon  the  cold  and  hard  and  selfish  natures 
about  him ;  this  man,  who  came  to  men  in  the  dark 
Roman  Empire  as  May  winds  and  summer  breezes 
come  to  unlock  the  frozen  soil  everywhere,  and  to 
bring  warmth  to  vegetation,  —  this  noble  man  is  the 
model  of  preachers  ;  and  whoever  acquires  his  spirit  has 
his  armory  full,  needs  no  other  weapons,  and  is  com- 
plete in  his  equipment. 

THE   ESTABLISHED   AUTHORITY   OF   THE   BIBLE. 

There  is  one  other  fact  in  respect  to  the  Bible,  of 
which  I  desire  to  speak,  namely,  that  happily  it  has 
been  so  long  in  the  world,  and  so  much  taught,  that  it 
is  an  authority  now  among  the  common  people,  cer- 
tainly throughout  Christendom.  That  is  an  advantage 
which  ought  not  to  be  ignored.  The  reverence  of  men 
for  tlie  Bible  should  not  be  undermined. 


LECTUEES    ON    PEEACIIING. 


PREACHERS   TO    BE   BIBLE-MEN. 

Young  gentlemen,  I  cannot  say  all  that  I  have 
marked  out  for  myself.  I  shall  reserve  some  further 
thought  on  this  subject  for  to-morrow  afternoon,  as  to 
the  metliods  by  which  you  are  to  use  this  book.  But 
let  me  say  to  you,  that,  in  my  judgment,  all  other  edu- 
cation put  together  is  not  an  equivalent  for  a  thorough 
and  sympathetic  personal  knowledge  of  the  Bible. 
You  ought  to  live  in  its  atmosphere  until  it  strikes 
utterly  through  and  through  you.  No  philosophical 
formula,  no  statistical  tabulations,  can  be  a  substitute 
for  its  essential  spirit,  —  that  which  is  in  it  of  God,  and 
that  conception  which  is  in  it  of  regenerated  manhood 
or  the  development  of  spiritual  life  in  man,  and  all 
those  things  which  fill  the  a]3othegms,  and  maxims,  and 
brief  sentences  of  the  Apostle's  writings  full  of  marrow, 
and  make  them  overflow  with  sweetness. 

Take  those  little  words  and  expressions  which  occur 
in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Corinthians  :  "  Love  suffer- 
eth  long,  and  is  kind ;  love  envieth  not ;  love  vaunteth 
not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up  ;  doth  not  behave  itself  un- 
seemly ;  seeketh  not  her  own ;  is  not  easily  provoked  ; 
tliinketh  no  evil ;  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  re- 
joiceth  in  the  truth ;  beareth  all  tilings,  believeth  all 
things,  liopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things  ;  love 
never  faileth."  Every  one  of  them  is  a  flower  with 
honey  in  the  bottom.  They  are  just  as  full  of  sweet- 
ness and  fragrance  as  they  can  bo.  All  the  way 
tlirough,  every  slightest  word  was  dropped  out  of  a 
honey-bearing  soul. 

The  Word  of  God  has  not  grown  old,  any  more  than 


THE  preacher's  book.  27 

forests  grow  old,  or  the  sky  grows  old,  or  the  seasons 
grow  old ;  and  with  all  your  gettings,  get  that  under- 
standing which  comes  from  making  yourselves  per- 
fectly familiar  with  the  Bible,  with  its  interior 
substance,  as  that  which  shall  be  a  lamp  unto  your 
feet,  and  a  light  unto  your  path,  so  that  you  shall  be 
accustomed  to  look  at  everything  in  life,  unconsciously, 
from  the  divine  standpoint,  measuring  men,  ways, 
motives,  all  things,  from  the  inner  s^^irit  of  the 
Word  of  God.  Then  the  outside  world  and  science 
will  help  you,  and  the  Church  and  its  ordinances  will 
help  you. 

First  of  all  things,  be  ye  transformed  into  spiritual 
Bible-men.  If  you  had  not  another  volume  on  earth, 
you  could  make  very  excellent  preachers  of  yourselves 
by  the  Word  of  the  Lord.  Allow  me  to  speak  of  my 
own  early  ministry  in  this  respect.  I  owe  more  to  the 
Book  of  Acts  and  to  the  writings  of  the  Apostle  Paul 
than  to  all  other  books  put  together.  I  was  sent  into 
the  wilderness  of  Indiana  to  preach  among  the  poor 
and  ignorant,  and  I  lived  much  in  my  saddle.  My 
library  was  in  my  saddle-bags  ;  I  Avent  from  camp-meet- 
ing to  camp-meeting,  and  from  log-hut  to  log-hut.  I 
had  my  New  Testament,  and  from  it  I  learned  that 
which  has  been  the  very  secret  of  any  success  that  I 
have  had  in  the  Christian  ministry.  My  strength  has 
been  in  the  love  of  Christ ;  in  the  glory  of  that  concep- 
tion of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus ;  in  the  sense  that 
my  business  was  to  win  men ;  and  in  my  attempt  to 
win  them  by  bringing  the  same  influences  to  bear  upon 
them  which  I  found  abounding  throughout  the  New 
Testament. 


28 


LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 


Blessed  it  would  be,  for  many  of  you,  if  you  could  be 
shut  up  to  the  Bible  in  your  work,  if,  for  several  years, 
at  least  during  the  earlier  part  of  your  ministry,  you 
could  go  into  the  field,  taking  your  Bible  in  your  hand, 
and  with  it  labor  for  men,  for  their  conversion  and 
for  their  salvation. 


II. 


HOW  TO   USE   THE  BIBLE. 

February  12,  .1874. 
THE  MANY-SIDEDNESS   OF  THE   BIBLE. 

WS^^  may  be  said  of  the  Bible,  as  it  is  of  the 
1  alphabet :  it  is  what  you  make  it.  Letters 
^^  all  have  a  power  of  their  own,  and  they  are 
^^^  unchangeable  ;  but  with  you  is  the  combina- 
tion, and  the  literature  which  flows  from  the  alphabet 
is  your  literature,  though  the  alphabet  represents  it. 
We  see  streams  setting  from  the  Word  of  God,  almost 
innumerable,  of  theories  and  doctrines  ;  and  they  can 
hardly  all  be  correct,  because  some  of  them  are  mutually 
destructive.  And  so  I  may  say,  without  being  misun- 
derstood, that  there  are  a  great  many  Bibles.  But  in 
using  the  same  Bible,  by  the  same  man,  there  are  diverse 
modes,  which  make  really  different  books  of  it.  There 
are  three  in  particular  that  I  shall  speak  of  this  after- 
noon, in  continuing,  as  I  do,  the  discussion  of  the 
Sources  of  Christian  Truth  and  Doctrine. 

There  are  what  may  be  called,  then,  tlie  Bible  of  the 
closet,  the  Bible  of  the  class-room,  and  the  Bible  of  the 
pulpit.  -  I  do  not  mention  these  as  being  separate  from 
each  other,  because   they  run  more  or  less  into  one 


30  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

another.  Still  less  do  I  speak  of  them  as  being  antago- 
nistic, because  they  all  have,  or  may  have,  an  auxiliary 
relationship  to  each  other ;  so  that  the  most  perfect 
use  of  sacred  Scripture  will  be  that  which  combines 
the  three. 

THE   BIBLE  OF   THE   CLOSET. 

First,  the  Bible  of  the  closet.  It  has  this  peculiarity, 
that  its  function  is  to  give  sustenance,  light,  direction, 
inspiration,  and  consolation  to  the  person  who  makes 
application  to  it.  It  is  the  Avord  of  God,  as  studied 
by  any  one  for  his  personal  benefit,  not  seeking  to 
know  his  relation  to  others,  except  so  far  as  his  duties 
are  concerned ;  not  seeking  to  know  the  system  of  the 
universe ;  not  looking  for  philosophies,  nor  for  ideas, 
except  so  far  as  philosophies  or  ideas  have  immediate 
reference  to  his  own  personal  life.  It  is  the  personal 
Bible,  the  private  man's  Bible  ;  and  as  such  it  is  to  be 
studied  in  the  spirit  in  which  the  Apostle  spoke  when 
he  said  :  — 

"All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruc- 
tion in  righteousness ;  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect, 
thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works." 

Kow,  no  two  men  are  just  alike ;  no  two  men  have 
precisely  the  same  difficulties  ;  no  two  men  have  pre- 
cisely the  same  needs.  Put  twenty  men  at  the  goodly 
table  of  the  New  Haven  House,  and  you  shall  find 
scarcely  two  of  them  selecting  their  food  alike  ;  watch 
their  amount  of  sleep,  and  you  shall  scarcely  find  any 
two  of  them  that  agree  exactly  in  that  particular  ;  and 
the  same  will  be  true  in  respect  to  other  experiences 


HOW   TO   USE   THE  BIBLE.  31 

where  temperament,  habit,  necessity,  business,  and  vari- 
ous other  elements  come  in ;  and  as  this  is  in  evident 
accordance  with  natural  law,  you  think  it  is  wholesome. 

Men  read  the  AVord  of  God  on  the  principle  of 
elective  affinity,  and  there  are  many  who  go  trumpet- 
ing and  triumphing  all  the  way  through  it,  because 
they  always  see  things  couleur  de  rose.  They  are  of  a 
buoyant,  imaginative  temperament ;  they  fish  for  that  in 
the  Bible  which  feeds  them,  that  they  like  to  read ;  and 
they  go  skipping  and  jumping  along  on  the  salient  points 
of  joy,  and  leave  out  the  interstitial  spaces  of  darkness. 
And  if  you  could  mark  what  for  twenty  years  has  sus- 
tained them,  you  would  find  that  it  is  not  the  whole  of 
the  book,  nor  that  part  of  the  book  which  some  other 
man  took,  but  something  that  was  personal  to  them- 
selves, and  that  came  to  them  on  account  of  certain 
wants  and  tastes. 

Then,  if  you  take  another  person  who  is  naturally 
timid,  who  is  melancholy,  who  is  overwhelmed  in  life 
with  disappointments,  you  will  find  that  he,  going  to 
the  Word  of  God,  is  perpetually  comforting  himself 
with  the  consolations  which  he  finds  in  it.  He  acts 
also  on  the  principle  of  elective  affinity.  Because  he 
likes  consolation,  he  therefore  seeks  it  everywhere.  Be- 
cause he  needs  comfort,  he,  as  it  were,  works  it  out  of 
the  Word  of  God,  looking  at  different  parts  of  Scripture 
always  or  generally  from  the  same  point  of  view. 

I  suspect  that  there  is  not  a  single  one  of  you  wlio  is 
in  the  ministry,  and  who  has  preached  on  any  subject 
involving  human  wants,  who  has  not  had  some  persons 
in  his  congregation  that  said,  "  I  hope  he  will  shape 
that  sermon  so  as  to  suit  my  case  ";  but,  instead  of  that, 


32  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

the  preacher  went  on  with  his  "  first,"  and  "  secondly," 
and  "  tliirdly,"  through  his  entire  discourse,  and  they 
■went  out,  saying,  "Well,  I  suppose  that  was  a  good 
sermon.  I  hoped  it  would  come  down  to  where  I  am, 
and  meet  my  need,  but  it  did  not."  They  wanted  con- 
solation ;  but  they  got  an  intellectual  disquisition  on 
something  which  wonderfully  helped  somebody  else  in 
the  congregation,  but  did  not  feed  them. 

READING  FOR  PERSONAL  NEED. 

Therefore,  of  the  scores  of  people  who  go  to  the 
Word  of  God,  each,  if  he  goes  honestly  and  earnestly, 
seeks  to  feed  himself ;  and  what  food  he  wants  depends 
very  much  on  the  way  in  which  he  is  made,  on  the 
exigencies  in  which  he  stands,  and  on  the  experiences 
that  have  developed  some  parts  of  his  moral  nature 
and  left  some  parts  of  it  uneducated  and  unformed. 
There  are  ten  thousand  human  wants,  and  no  one  man 
can  prescribe  for  them  all.  It  would  require  omnis- 
cience to  do  that.  But  the  Word  of  God  meets  them, 
and  must  interpret  itself  to  people  according  to  their 
various  needs.  When  persons  are  made  willing  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Invisible,  they  will 
find,  both  in  and  out  of  the  Bible,  green  pastures  and 
still  waters  for  themselves. 

So  I  may  say  that  the  Word  of  God  is  like  the  cir- 
cumjacent country.  One  goes  out  from  your  classes, 
and  scales  East  or  West  Eock.  He  studies  its  structure. 
He  explores  the  whole  country  to  make  himself  familiar 
with  its  geological  formation.  And  when  he  returns,  he 
gives  an  account  of  that  part  of  nature  in  which  he  is 
particularly  interested.     Another  goes  out  and  comes 


HOW  TO   USE  THE   BIBLE.  33 

back  without  having  seen  a  stone,  —  unless  he  has 
stubbed  his  toe  against  one.  He  lias  been  studying  the 
botany  of  the  country.  He  loves  that.  Another  does 
not  care  for  either  of  these  departments  as  a  realm  of 
scientific  facts ;  for  he  has  a  poet's  eye,  and  would  sing, 
if  he  could,  the  things  that  he  sees.  He  sees  them  in 
suggestions.  Behind  every  plant,  there  is  to  his  eye  a 
more  beautiful  one.  Above  everything  that  he  beholds 
there  is  something  rarer  than  the  thing  itself  The 
artist  follows  the  poet,  and  is  not  greatly  different  from 
him  ;  but  he  is  kept  near  to  the  earth  by  the  necessity 
of  representation.  He  sees  things  in  a  still  different 
light.  He  studies  their  combinations,  their  gradations 
of  color,  and  their  minute  parts.  He  is  thinking  all 
tlie  time,  "  How  could  that  be  portrayed  ?  How  could 
this  be  worked  up  ?     How  could  I  sketch  that  ? " 

All  of  them  have  seen  nature  ;  but  nature  is  not 
different  because  they  bring  back  different  reports  con- 
cerning it. 

ISTo^v,  through  the  glades,  in  the  forests,  over  the 
mountains,  along  the  valleys,  and  upon  the  plains  of 
Sacred  Writ,  men  go,  and  follow  the  leading  of  their 
want.  Blessed  be  God,  they  have  that  hberty.  And  the 
same  man  will  seek  different  things  according  to  his 
varying  moods  or  needs.  Men  seek  sometimes  the  things 
that  open  toward  the  other  life,  and  sometimes  the 
things  that  interpret  the  lowest  experiences  of  this  life. 
So  there  is  always  this  personal  Bible,  —  a  Bible  that  is 
vastly  neglected.  Men  think  that  they  read  their  Bibles 
when  they  do  not.  There  are  many  who  have  a  super- 
stitious reverence  for  it,  and  go  to  it  periodically,  and 
skim  over  portions  of  it ;  but  they  do  not  read  it. 

2*  C 


34  LECTURES   OX  PREACHING. 


BONDAGE  AND   LIBERTY  IN   READING. 

A  man  starts  for  his  business,  and  gets  as  far  as  the 
door ;  and  his  wife  calls  out  to  him,  "  My  dear,  have  you 
forgotten  prayers  ? "  "  Well,"  he  says,  "  we  have  n't  had 
prayers,  have  we  ?  I  did  forget."  Back  he  goes,  and 
takes  his  Bible,  and  turns  to  the  twelfth  Psalm.  He 
chooses  that  because  it  is  short.  Blessed  be  the  Psalms  ; 
they  are  of  all  lengths  and  shapes,  to  meet  every 
emergency !  Having  hastily  gone  through  a  perfunc- 
tory service,  he  starts  for  his  business  again,  saying, 
"  The  Devil  did  n't  catch  me  to-day ;  I  have  read  my 
Bible." 

Now,  how  does  that  differ  from  putting  an  amulet 
around  a  man's  neck,  or  from  worshiping  an  idol  ? 
You  might  as  well  look  into  a  cook-shoj)  window  and 
think  you  are  fed,  as  to  go  to  your  Bible  in  that  way 
and  think  that  it  is  of  any  use  to  you.  You  have 
abused  it,  not  used  it. 

I  lay  great  stress  on  this  liberty  which  belongs  to 
men,  this  necessity  which  is  laid  upon  them,  to  find 
that  in  the  Word  of  God  which  shall  meet  their  case, 
and  read  it  according  to  their  personal  wants.  There 
are  those  who  learn  the  Bible ;  there  are  thousands  of 
humble  people  to  whom  it  becomes  familiar ;  for  it  is  a 
peculiarity  of  the  Word  of  God,  that  as  men  run  under 
trees  and  get  behind  rocks  when  storms  are  in  the  sky, 
though  otherwise  they  would  not,  so  we  seek  a  covert 
in  the  Bible  when  we  are  in  trouble,  as  we  would  not  at 
any  other  time. 

God's  Word  is  not  a  liouse  of  bondage.  It  is  not 
r6quired  that  a  man  sliall  every  morning  marshal  his 


HOW  TO   USE  THE  BIBLE.  35 

family,  and  call  tlie  roll,  and  grind  out  a  ritualistic  or 
regulation  prayer,  and  read  his  Bible.  God's  Word  is  a 
Father's  house,  into  which  you  have  a  right  to  go,  and 
speak  or  keep  silent.  You  are  children  of  God,  and 
this  provision  has  been  made  for  you ;  but  it  is  not  to 
be  enforced  uj)on  you,  as  though  you  were  slaves. 
You  are  to  avail  yourselves  of  it  according  to  your 
need.     You  are  free  in  this  matter. 

I  suppose  no  person  ever  did  or  ever  will  read  the] 
whole  Bible  in  his  life.  I  know  there  are  persons  who 
read  it  by  letter ;  I  hear  people  say  that  they  make  it  a 
rule  to  read  the  whole  Bible  once  a  year ;  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that  they  skate  over  it  once  a  year;  but  I 
do  not  think  they  do  more  than  that,  because  it  is  not 
all  for  them. 

Take,  for  instance,  a  great,  square-built,  good,  honest- 
minded,  practical  Yankee,  who  knows  the  quality  of 
matter,  and  who  knows  how  to  put  thing  and  thing 
together,  and  make  money  out  of  them,  —  take  such  a 
man  and  put  him  into  Solomon's  Songs,  and  see  what 
he  will  make  out  of  them. 

Take  now  an  Oriental,  a  man  who  was  born  under 
different  skies ;  who  is  of  a  different  stock ;  whose  an- 
cestors have  had  different  associations  from  genera- 
tion to  generation;  whose  mind-methods  are  different; 
wdiose  growth  is  more  by  the  imagination  and  less  by 
the  practical  reason,  —  take  such  a  man,  and  he  will 
say  of  the  Songs  of  Solomon,  "  That  is  the  buckle  of 
the  Bible.  It  is  that  which  clasps  and  holds  together 
all  the  other  books." 

And  so,  all  the  way  through  the  Bible,  there  are 
things  which  men  who   are  proud,  or   men  who   are 


36  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

constitutionally  without  wisdom,  cannot  understand,  — 
they  are  mysteries  to  them.  There  are  deep  things  for 
mystics  in  the  Bible  which  people  who  have  no  mysti- 
cism are  unable  to  see.  They  do  not  see  them  when 
they  look  at  them.  In  the  Bible  there  are  things 
for  the  twilight,  things  for  the  moonlight,  things  for 
the  midnight,  things  for  the  day-dawn,  and  tilings  for 
the  noontide.  The  Bible  is  filled  with  ineffable  riches 
for  men ;  and  it  belongs  to  every  man  to  select  accord- 
ing to  his  need. 

The  different  parts  of  the  Bible  are  of  very  different 
values  for  private  reading.  I  think  there  is  a  great  deal 
of  the  Bible  that  is  just  as  necessary  for  the  race  as  the 
spelling-book ;  but  liow  long  is  it  since  you  sat  down  to 
read  your  spelling-books  ?  You  are  done  with  them  ; 
and  yet  you  do  not  disparage  them,  nor  cry  them  to 
naught. 

THE   DECALOGUE. 

Take  the  Ten  Commandments.  It  is  true  that  by 
a  very  liberal  construction  you  can  make  them  cover 
about  everything  in  creation,  as,  by  beating  gold  with 
gold-beaters'  skin  you  can  make  a  piece  as  big  as  my 
hand  cover  an  acre  or  so.  The  Ten  Commandments 
stand  where  men  emerge  from  the  lowest  conditions, 
and  in  the  dawn  of  the  recognition  of  God's  authority. 
They  have  to  do  with  the  commonest  vices  of  men,  and 
with  their  plainest  duties  in  society.  They  are  the 
cliarter  that  imposes  conditions  without  which  there 
could  not  be  rectitude,  or  the  proprieties  of  life,  or  the 
sanctities  of  the  household.  But  they  are  all  negative. 
All  that  which  is  called  in  the  New  Testament  "  the 


HOW   TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  37 

fruit  of  the  Spirit,"  is  left  out  of  them.  Of  the  glow 
of  interior  illumination  there  is  not  a  ray  in  them.  Far 
back  they  stand  in  the  beginning  of  the  history  of  the 
world,  and  far  down  in  that  history  which  reproduces 
itself  in  every  generation.  They  are  adapted  to  the 
building  up  of  a  lower  style  of  man.  Their  cry,  for- 
ever, is,  "  Thou  shalt  not,"  "  Thou  shalt  not."  Woe  to 
that  man  who  has  lived  among  churches  and  Bibles 
and  preachers,  and  has  not  got  higher  than  the  Ten 
Commandments  !  And  yet  we  see  them  emblazoned 
in  the  House  of  God  as  though  they  expressed  the 
highest  ideas  to  which  men  have  reached.  They  say  to 
men,  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal.  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false 
witness.  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery  "  ;  the  grosser 
and  more  bestial  forms  of  sin  are  forbidden  by  them ; 
but  those  moral  virtues  and  spiritual  attainments  which 
belong  to  a  developed  manhood  are  not  enjoined  in 
them.  I  do  not  say  that  it  would  not  do  very  well  for 
men  who  are  pretty  high  up  in  civilization  to  read 
them  yet ;  there  are  many  men  that  are  called  civilized 
who  I  think  would  profit  still  by  reading  them  in 
respect  to  some  of  those  vices  which  they  condemn. 
But  they  are  an  illustration  of  what  I  mean.  In  my 
estimation,  the  Ten  Commandments  are  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  Sermon  on  the  INIount,  which  is  some- 
times supposed  to  be  the  highest  peak  in  the  New 
Testament.  No,  it  is  not,  by  a  great  deal.  The  fif- 
teenth, sixteenth,  and  seventeenth  chapters  of  John  — 
those  incomparable  discourses  of  Christ  in  the  love- 
hours  which  just  preceded  his  crucifixion  —  are  as 
much  higher  than  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  that 
is  higher  than  the  Ten  Commandments. 


38  LECTURES    ON   PREACHING. 

There  are,  then,  variations  in  the  moral  value  of  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  Bible,  if  men  only  have  the  inter- 
preting necessity  in  them  by  which  to  discern  these 
things. 

Such  is  what  I  call  the  Bible  of  the  closet.  It  is  inter- 
preted by  personal  necessity,  and  by  elective  affinity ; 
but  that  is  not  all.  It  is  an  immediate  source  of  conso- 
lation. It  comforts  in  sorrow  ;  it  relieves  in  perplexity ; 
it  is  a  mother  in  the  household ;  it  is  a  counselor  to 
the  mechanic,  to  the  workman,  when  he  asks,  "  Where 
shall  I  go  ?  What  shall  I  do  ?  How  shall  I  carry 
myself  ? "  When  men  are  stirred  up ;  when  they  are 
oppressed ;  when  they  are  burdened ;  when  they  are 
yoked,  harnessed,  and  driven  by  depressing  moods,  then 
they,  above  all  other  men,  must  have  a  personal  Bible 
speaking  to  tliem,  day  by  day.  Under  such  circum- 
stances the  Bible  becomes,  not  only  a  lamp  to  their  feet 
and  a  light  to  their  path,  but  bread  for  their  life,  medi- 
cine for  their  soul,  and  water  coming  to  them  from 
under  the  very  throne  of  God  itself 

THE   CLASS-ROOM   BIBLE. 

Next,  we  have  the  Bible  of  the  class-room.  This  is 
the  Bible  philosophized  and  interpreted  according  to 
some  system.  It  is  indispensable  that  there  should  be  a 
Bible  of  the  class-room.  The  Word  of  God  is  so  large  ; 
it  touches  human  nature  on  so  many  sides ;  there  is  so 
much  in  it  of  duty  and  of  destiny  hereafter ;  it  is  so 
composite  and  so  variable  ;  parts  of  it  are  so  apparently 
antagonistic  with  each  other  until  a  comprehensive 
view  is  gained  of  it,  as  a  record  that  has  come  down 
through  thousands  of  revolving  years,  among  different 


HOW   TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  39 

peoples  and  in  different  languages ;  there  is  so  much  in 
it  that  requires  explanation  and  rearrangement,  that 
when  we  undertake  to  look  at  it  as  a  whole,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  there  should  be  a  Bible  of  the  class-room,  in 
which  the  various  teachinirs  shall  be  diirested  and  ac- 

O  O 

counted  for. 

First  come  those  indispensable  men,  the  philologer 
and  the  archaBologist.  These  two  men  simply  take  the 
Bible  and  put  it  into  your  hands  with  such  illustration 
as  is  essential  to  a  knowledge  of  the  text. 

THE   VALUE   OF   THEOLOGY. 

Then  comes  the  theologian  proper.  ISTow,  young 
gentlemen,  I  have  often  indulged  myself  in  words  that 
would  seem  to  undervalue  theologians  ;  but  you  know 
I  do  not  mean  it !  I  profess  to  be  a  theologian  myself ; 
my  father  was  a  theologian ;  my  brothers  are  all  theo- 
logians ;  and  so  are  many  men  whom  I  revere,  and  who 
are  the  brightest  lights  of  genius,  I  think,  that  have 
ever  shone  in  the  world.  I  believe  in  theologians  ;  and 
yet  I  think  it  is  perfectly  fair  to  make  game  of  them ! 
I  do  not  think  there  is  anything  in  this  world,  whether 
it  be  man  or  that  which  is  beneath  man,  that  is  not 
legitimate  food  for  innocent,  un vicious  fun ;  and  if  it 
should  cast  a  ray  of  light  on  the  truth,  and  alleviate 
the  tediousness  of  a  lecture  now  and  then  to  have  a 
slant  at  theologians,  why,  I  think  they  can  stand  it !  It 
will  not  hurt  them,  and  it  may  amuse  us.  So  let  me 
speak  freely,  —  the  more  so,  because  I  affirm  that  it  is 
indispensable  for  every  man  who  is  to  do  a  consider- 
able religious  work  during  a  long  period,  or  with  any 
degree  of  self-consistency,  to  be  a  theologian.    He  must 


40  LECTURES    ON    PREACHING. 

have  method ;  there  must  be  a  sequence  of  ideas  in  his 
thoucrht.  And  if  the  M^ork  runs  lonsj  enough  and  far 
enough,  and  embraces  many  things,  there  must  be  a 
system  of  applying  means  to  ends,  there  must  be  a 
knowledge  of  instruments.  These  things  are  theology, 
in  a  sense,  —  a  part  of  it,  at  any  rate. 

Indeed,  philosophizing  follows  of  necessity  after  cul- 
ture. It  is  one  of  the  fruits  of  intelligence.  To  merely 
know  facts  is  to  be  no  higlier  than  an  animal.  When 
you  begin  to  know  the  relations  of  facts  you  begin  to 
ascend.  When  you  know  facts  and  their  relations  in 
a  large  department,  you  become  a  philosopher  of  that 
department. 

Theologian,  then,  is  only  another  name  for  ijhiloso- 
plicr.  The  theologian's  department  is  the  philosophy  of 
moral  ideas  and  their  connections  with  mankind. 

Not  only  so,  but  a  good  understanding  of  Scripture 
itself  demands  that  tliere  should  be  interpretations 
given  of  it.  The  work  is  made  more  accessible  and 
plainer  by  theology,  in  spite  of  all  its  evils  of  method. 
And  in  the  main  let  me  say  that,  while  I  do  not  believe 
in  a  great  many  of  the  theological  methods  and  systems 
which  have  prevailed,  I  do  not  despise  them.  I  do  not 
speak  of  them  with  contempt,  any  more  than  I  do  of 
certain  civil  governments,  which  certain  nations  or  cer- 
tain times  demanded,  but  which  do  not  fit  our  times 
nor  our  nation ;  or,  any  more  than  I  do  of  the  schools 
of  Alexandria,  which  did  not  compare  with  Yale  or 
Harvard,  but  which  were  admirable  in  their  age,  and 
which,  by  their  very  excellences,  stimulated  growth, 
the  old  institutions  being  no  longer  applicable  to  the 
new  conditions  which  were  produced  by  them. 


HOW   TO    USE   THE   BIBLE.  41 

As  summer  makes  the  tree  so  much  larger  that  the 
bark  has  to  let  out  a  seam,  because  the  old  bark  will 
not  do  for  the  new  growth,  and  as  the  same  tiling 
takes  places  from  season  to  season,  so  mental  philoso- 
phy —  for  all  theology  is  mental  philosophy  —  changes 
from  age  to  age,  through  both  obvious  and  latent 
causes. 

EXCELLENCES  AND   DEFECTS   OF   CALVINISM. 

Look,  for  instance,  at  the  view  of  the  Divine  econo- 
my which  was  represented,  in  an  iron  age,  by  John 
Calvin,  —  a  man  without  bowels  and  intensely  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  monarchic  idea.  That  view  has  been 
assailed  a  thousand  times  more  severely  in  the  in- 
visible process  by  which  democratic  ideas  have  gone 
through  the  mass  of  men,  than  ever  it  has  been  by 
those  who  have  spoken  and  written  against  it.  Men 
have  come  to  have  an  entirely  different  notion  of  the 
rights  of  the  citizen  ;  and  political  affairs  have  changed 
in  men's  estimation ;  and  those  dynastic  views  and 
ideas  of  the  Divine  Being  which  once  prevailed  would 
be  absolutely  impossible  to  men  in  our  day,  except 
such  as  are  in  sympathy  with  the  special  faculties  of 
self-esteem,  firmness,  and  conscientiousness,  which  suit 
the  ruler-mind  and  the  ruler-nature.  But  in  general  it 
is  to  be  said  that  all  the  systems  of  theology  which 
have  prevailed  in  the  world  have  done  a  great  work. 

I  may  speak  in  your  hearing,  sometimes,  slightingly 
of  John  Calvin.  He  knows  as  well  as  I  do  that  I  do 
not  mean  any  harm  to  him.  I  revere  him.  and  appre- 
ciate his  great  work.  The  world  is  greatly  indebted 
to  him.     When  the  whole  of  Christendom  was  broken 


42  LECTURES   ON   PEEACHING. 

off'  from  sensuous  and  visible  objects  of  adoration,  and 
they  felt  that  they  had  lost  everything  ;  when,  having 
been  trained  to  believe  that  religion  presented  to  them 
bodily,  in  church  forms,  all  that  they  needed  in  their 
worsliip,  they  were  called  to  suddenly  step  out  of  these 
forms,  they  said,  "  Why,  we  have  lost  everything  ; 
there  is  nothing  left."  Before,  there  were  days,  and 
calendar,  and  saints,  and  priests,  and  garments,  and 
cathedrals,  and  all  the  panoply  that  was  required  for 
a  believer  in  material  things,  but  now  they  were  gone. 
When  it  was  said  to  them,  "  Abandon  your  symbols 
and  ceremonies  and  services,"  and  they  were  like  the 
men  who,  having  eaten  garlics  and  onions  in  Egypt, 
found  themselves  eating  nothing  on  tlie  other  side  of 
the  Eed  Sea,  then  John  Calvin  fdled  their  imagination, 
and  gave  them  just  as  much  to  believe  as  they  could 
hold,  and  a  little  more. 

The  transition  was  a  magnificent  one.  It  was  a 
grand  era.  As  a  mental  phenomenon  it  is  not  half 
enough  pondered.  He  substituted  for  that  which  had 
been  taken  away  from  them,  or  which  they  had  given 
up,  a  system  of  such  intellectual  power  and  such  ele- 
ments for  admiration  and  adhesion,  that  it  was  well 
adapted  to  the  irregular  times  in  which  he  reared  it. 
So  it  did  a  wonderful  work,  besides  being  an  ark  in 
which  to  carry  men  over  from  papacy  to  the  better 
ground  of  Protestantism.  I  like  old  John  Calvin,  be- 
cause I  think  he  believed  what  he  preached,  —  though 
I  cannot  say  so  of  hundreds  of  later  men  ;  they  are  not 
large  enough  for  the  space  tliey  occupy.  If  David  had 
gone  forth  in  Saul's  armor,  his  voice  might  have  sounded 
out  from  it  on  this  side,  or  on  that ;  he  might  have 


HOW  TO   USE  THE  BIBLE.  43 

rattled  about  in  it  after  a  fashion ;  but  he  would  not 
liave  felt  at  home  in  it.  Men  go  into  a  system  of 
theology  which  is  as  much  larger  than  they  are  as  a 
lobster  is  larger  than  a  snail ;  and  they  pipe  through 
it,  and  make  a  little  noise,  and  this  is  all !  I  do  not 
accuse  them  of  insincerity ;  but  I  say  that  the  system 
they  use  is  not  adapted  to  them,  John  Calvin's 
system,  however,  fitted  him  all  over,  and  I  think  he 
really  enjoyed  it,  —  there  are  evidences  that  he  did; 
and  its  work  since  that  time  has  been  wonderful.  It 
has  done  both  good  and  evil.  It  has  raised  up  many 
sturdy  and  stalwart  Christian  men.  But  it  has  also 
crushed  many  and  many  a  heart.  It  has  wrung  sor- 
rows and  sadnesses  out  of  sensitive  natures  such  as  none 
but  the  recording  angel  knows.  It  has  turned  many 
days  to  darkness  ;  and  much  of  the  light  of  God  which 
came  free  as  the  air  has  been  intercepted  by  it ;  and 
when  it  fell  upon  the  understandings  of  men,  its  color 
was  some  lurid  red  or  some  hideous  blue.  That  I 
know  right  well,  both  in  my  own  experience  and  in 
the  experience  of  those  whose  troubles  I  have  been 
called  to  medicate  in  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  in- 
stances. 

So,  while  I  regard  Calvin  as  one  of  the  master  minds 
of  the  ages  ;  while  I  believe  that  some  part  of  the  truth 
which  belonged  to  his  system  was  never  before  so  ably 
stated  as  he  stated  it ;  while  I  think  that  his  statement 
of  it  can  never  be  improved,  —  yet  I  say  that  in  many 
respects,  so  far  as  that  is  concerned  which  should  be 
the  supreme  idea  of  any  system,  namely,  the  nature  and 
administration  of  the  Divine,  I  do  not  think  it  is  Chris- 
tian.    I  think  it  is  essentially  what  the  religion  of 


44  LECTUKES   ON   PKEACHING. 

nature  was,  before  nature  knew  that  there  was  a  Sa- 
viour.    It  is  monarchic  and  hard,  in  my  judgment. 

Well,  all  this  that  I  have  been  saying  about  theol- 
ogy and  theologians  is  apologetic  and  explanatory.  I 
would  set  myself  right  with  you.  I  say,  therefore,  that 
I  admire  theologians,  and  that  I  thoroughly  believe  in 
theology,  though  I  claim  the  right  to  criticise  both, 
and  to  express  my  like  or  dislike,  according  to  the 
measure  of  reason  and  feeling  which  God  has  given 
me. 

WHAT  THE   BIBLE  IS   NOT. 

Now,  then,  let  me  speak  of  the  way  in  which  the 
Bible  comes  into  the  class-room,  and  becomes  the 
foundation  of  a  system. 

Generally,  almost  invariably,  the  theologian  comes 
to  the  Bible  (in  times  gone  by  he  did,  at  any  rate) 
with  the  general  impression  that  it  contains  all  that 
is  necessary  for  a  man  to  know  in  respect  to  the 
Divine  Being;  that  it  is  relatively  a  perfect  exposi- 
tion of  the  nature  of  God.  The  Bible  does  not  make 
any  such  claim,  but  the  theologian  goes  to  the  class- 
room, Bible  in  hand,  with  the  assumption  that  there  is 
in  the  Word  of  God  all  that  is  needed  for  the  develop- 
ment of  a  system  of  universal  moral  government ;  that 
it  does  not  confine  itself  to  substantial  facts  and  gen- 
eral outlines,  but  that  it  runs  down  deep  into  minutiae, 
and  far  back  into  the  eternities,  even ;  that  everything 
essential  to  the  belief  of  a  Christian  man  is  contained 
there  in  so  many  words,  or  by  such  immediate  infer- 
ence as  to  be  unavoidable  and  certain  ;  that  directly,  or 
by  indispensable  conclusion,  the  frame  of  the  Church, 


HOW  TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  45 

its  polity,  its  offices,  its  goverriment,  its  work,  and  its 
whole  administration,  either  are  delivered,  or  are  to  be 
delivered,  to  the  hands  of  men,  by  provision  which  has 
been  made  in  the  Word  of  God.  All  these  assump- 
tions are  made  on  the  supposition  that  the  Word  of 
God  is  a  perfect  man  of  counsel,  and  is  adequate  to  all 
the  emergencies  of  the  world.  Now,  I  do  not  believe 
in  any  one  of  those  points.  I  do  not  believe  that  the- 
Bible  contains  all  that  it  is  necessary  for  a  man  to 
know  of  God.  It  was  not  designed  that  it  should. 
Do  you  suppose  that  the  Bible  M^as  meant  to  be  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  revelation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Do  you 
suppose  that  there  is  anything  in  the  Bible  which  can 
teach  men  as  I  was  taught,  when  almost  every  earthly 
sensation  was  paralyzed,  and  I  stood  by  my  dead  first- 
born ?  In  the  utter  abandonment  of  my  soul,  I  opened 
my  heart  to  God,  and  his  Spirit  came  down  and  taught 
me  a  lesson  of  his  fatherhood  that  I  found  neither  in 
Genesis,  nor  in  Exodus,  nor  in  Leviticus,  nor  in  the 
Prophets,  nor  in  any  of  the  books  of  the  Bible.  It  was 
first  disclosed  to  me  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  then  I 
went  back  to  the  Word  of  God.  Though  I  did  not  see 
the  thing  itself,  I  saw  its  germ  there;  and  I  did  not 
know  how  to  interpret  it  until  I  received  light  from 
the  Divine  Spirit. 

Do  you  not  suppose  that  God  means  man  to  work 
out  his  own  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and  of  the  truths 
that  are  in  it,  as  well  as  to  work  out  his  own  salvation  ? 
Do  you  suppose  the  Bible  is  a  substitute  for  human 
findings-out  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  it  contains  every- 
thing that  is  to  be  known  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  it 
is  a  thesaurus,  an  encyclopedia  of  knowledge,  meeting 


46  LECTURES   ON   PEEACHING. 

universal  necessity  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  as  a  foun- 
tain of  instruction  it  is  all  in  all  ?  Certainly  it  is  not. 
The  unfolding  ages  continually  add  to  our  knowledge 
of  things,  never  taking  us  away  from  the  germs,  any 
more  than  literature  takes  us  away  from  the  alphabet, 
or  any  more  than  the  highest  mathematics  take  us 
away  from  the  numerals,  which,  disappearing,  reappear 
again  in  the  highest  functions  and  uses. 

The  man  who  has  found  himself  out  by  experience, 
who  has  brought  in  the  largest  harvests  from  life,  who 
has  pressed  from  the  grape  the  pure  wine,  who  has 
made  of  wheat  the  best  flour,  —  he  feels,  more  than  any 
other,  how  rich  the  Bible -is.  He  goes  out  of  the  Bible 
to  find  things  that  he  does  not  find  in  it  or  that  he 
finds  there  in  germinal  forms,  rude  tendencies,  which  it 
was  designed  that  man  should  work  out.  The  Bible 
was  meant  to  start  him,  but  it  was  intended  that  he 
should  go  on  to  perfection. 

So,  then,  without  time  and  development,  in  other 
words,  without  the  ordinary  building  process  which 
the  Divine  Providence  is  carrying  on  through  all  the 
ages  of  the  world ;  without  that  revelation  of  knowl- 
edge which  God  is  bringing  forth  from  the  earth  be- 
neatli  us,  from  the  starry  depths  above  us,  from  past 
generations  of  men,  from  nature,  from  governments, 
from  climates,  from  industries,  and  from  emergencies 
that  have  swelled  the  conceptions  of  humanity  in 
every  age,  —  without  all  these  elements,  the  Bible  itself 
is  not  perfect.  For  the  Bible  was  not  meant  to  be  like 
a  tree  standing  alone.  Neither  was  it  meant  to  be  like 
a  solitary  cave,  with  some  oracle  speaking  from  the 
wilderness.     It  is  part  and  parcel  of  human  life ;   of 


HOW   TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  47 

providence  ;  of  the  great  process  of  unity  under  the 
Divine  administration.  It  goes  with  man,  giving  and 
taking  alike ;  giving  more  and  receiving  more  ;  forever 
augmenting ;  never  so  poor  as  in  the  beginning,  and 
never  so  rich  as  in  the  later  periods  of  the  world. 

EEROES   OF   INTERPRETATION. 

In  interpreting  the  Bible,  men  are  liable  —  I  say  by 
way  of  criticism  —  to  error  in  carrying  back  modern 
ideas  to  old  words  in  the  Bible,  so  that  final  fruits  are 
made  to  stand  in  the  very  beginnings  of  time.  Tliey 
convert  the  whole  liberty  of  emotion  and  imagination 
into  ideas  ;  and  to  things  that  are  of  themselves  evanes- 
cent and  transitory  they  give  fixity.  In  other  words,  I 
complain  that  a  book  so  generously  and  carelessly  writ- 
ten, now  with  the  unlimited  freedom  of  prophetic  inspi- 
ration, now  with  poetry,  and  now  with  sentiment,  is  so 
often  ground  over,  and  that  it  comes  out  of  the  mill  in 
the  form  of  absolute  scientific  statistics.  The  personal 
element  is  construed  into  the  universal.  That  which  is 
said  of  one  man,  and  of  him  in  particular  emergencies, 
in  the  Bible,  is  translated  as  something  which  belongs 
to  human  nature.  That  which  is  said  to  be  true  in  one 
age  is  supposed  to  be  a  generic  statement  of  that  which 
is  true  in  every  age.  That  which  is  true  of  a  man  in 
one  stage  of  his  development  is  supposed  to  be  true  of 
him  in  every  stage  of  his  development. 

In  this  way,  men,  forming  their  systems  of  theology 
out  of  the  Bible,  bring  to  it  methods  which  it  cannot 
bear  ;  which  mar  it  rather  than  clear  it  up ;  which  spoil 
it  rather  than  help  it. 

All  this  is  a  criticism  of  their  method.     It  is  a  criti- 


48  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

cism,  not  of  tlieir  attempt  to  draw  out  a  generic  view 
and  statement  of  the  Bible,  but  of  their  attempt  to  do 
it  by  imperfect,  and  sometimes  by  very  wrong  methods, 

DANGERS   OF   THE   RIGHT   METHOD, 

Then,  again,  they  bring  the  right  principle  to  work 
in  the  wrong  way,  which  results  in  a  fatal  error ;  the 
principle,  namely,  that  the  Bible  must  be  interpreted, 
not  from  the  letter  altogether,  nor  at  all,  but  from  the 
thing  that  the  letter  speaks  of.  If  I  were  to  state  it  in 
terms  that  many  would  regard  as  audacious,  I  should 
say  that  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible  is  not  in  itself, 
but  outside  of  itself.  This  may  seem  to  be  a  bold  state- 
ment, but  it  is  not.  You  all  believe  it.  You  know  per- 
fectly well  that  it  is  true  in  regard  to  physical  things. 
A  child  in  the  Sunday  school  knows  that  when  the 
Bible  says  "  stone  "  there  is  nothing  in  the  letters  that 
spell  that  word  which  tells  you  what  stone  is.  But  if, 
seeing  the  word  in  the  Bible  you  go  and  look  at  the 
thing  itself,  then  you  can  return  to  the  Bible,  and  say, 
"  I  know  what  stone  is."  If  the  Bible  speaks  of  rivers, 
of  mountains,  of  trees,  of  lambs,  of  calves,  of  lions,  of 
peacocks,  of  gold,  of  silver,  or  of  anything  that  is  ma- 
terial, nobody  supposes  that  one  can  understand  what 
these  things  are  until  he  has  seen  them  outside  of  the 
Bible. 

1  Now  the  same  thing  is  true  in  respect  to  social  ele- 
ments. If  the  Bible  speaks  of  husband  and  wife,  or  of 
brother  and  sister,  we  know  no  more  about  them  than 
we  do  about  cherubim  and  seraphim,  unless  we  know 
what  brother  and  sister  and  husband  and  wife  were 
before  we  go  to  the  Bible.     "We  take  that  which  is 


HOW   TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  49 

outside  of  the  Bible  and  use  it  as  a  means  of  interpret- 
ing statements  which  are  made  inside  of  it. 

So,  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  where  the  Bible  speaks 
of  love,  and  sparing,  and  pitying,  and  helping,  and  hop- 
ing, and  all  elements  of  this  class,  we  gain  a  knowledge 
of  them  from  the  exteiior,  and  then  carry  that  knowledge 
to  the  interior,  of  the  book. 

That  which  is  true,  and  which  is  admitted  to  be  true, 
in  respect  to  physical  and  social  elements,  is  likewise 
true  of  all  forms  of  fjovernment.  Nothing  in  the  Bible 
would  teach  us  what  a  king  was,  if  we  had  not  learned 
it  outside  of  the  Bible.  Laws,  constitutions,  modes  of 
public  procedure,  —  the  knowledge  of  these  things  can- 
not be  conveyed  by  the  letter  alone.  Nations,  towns, 
cities,  villages,  —  when  these  things  are  spoken  of  in 
Scripture,  we  first  go  to  the  things  themselves,  and 
then  we  bring  back  to  the  letter,  to  throw  light  upon  its 
interpretation,  the  knowledge  that  we  have  gained. 

The  same  is  true  in  respect  to  mental  philosophy,  or 
that  which  relates  to  things  that  are  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  sense,  —  things  that  transcend  our  powers  of  in- 
vestigation, —  things  that  pertain  to  the  invisible  world. 
The  nearest  that  we  can  come  to  these  is  to  take  the 
analogies  which  approach  most  nearly  to  them,  and 
then,  for  the  rest,  depend  upon  the  imagination.  Thus 
we  shape  them  as  well  as  we  can.  We  never  can  know 
perfectly  things  which  are  not  within  the  reach  of  our 
comprehension  by  one  or  other  of  the  faculties  of  the 
mind. 

The  Scriptures  address  themselves  to  our  power  of 
apprehension.  We  have  means  of  understanding  by 
which  to  obtain   that   knowledge   toward  which  they 

VOL.    III.  3  D 


50  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

point ;  and,  having  obtained  it,  we  go  back  to  the  state- 
ments which  they  make. 

Now,  to  be  safe  in  the  formation  of  a  theory  or  doc- 
trine from  the  Bible,  men  .should  not  only  recognize 
this  fact,  but  they  should  guard  against  its  abuse,  —  for 
it  may  be  abused.  It  is  open  to  very  serious  objections 
and  liabilities.  It  is  like  a  road  along  the  edge  of  a 
fathomless  gulf,  and  therefore  it  ought  to  be  carefully 
guarded.  Men  should  be  taught  to  use  their  liberty  in 
interpretation;  but  men  have  used  that  liberty,  and 
denied  that  they  used  it.  They  have  brought  to  the 
interpretation  of  God  their  foregoing  knowledge,  their 
special  political  biases,  their  overt  or  latent  notions  of 
mental  philosophy,  their  views  of  the  divine  moral 
nature,  their  ideas  of  the  way  in  which  God  has  con- 
structed each  man's  personality ;  and  these  things  have 
all,  unconsciously  to  them,  gone  into  the  construction 
of  their  theologies.  Thus  they  have  used  great  liberty 
of  interpretation,  and  they  ought  to  have  used  it ;  but 
it  would  have  been  better  if  they  had  used  it  with  their 
eyes  open,  with  larger  method,  and  with  proper  rules 
for  the  correction  of  personal  error,  and  what  not. 

HUMAN   REASON   TO   INTERPRET   DIVINE   THINGS. 

But  if  men  do  it  avowedly,  a  great  outcry  is  made 
against  it.  If,  for  instance,  I  should  say,  in  the  pulpit 
of  Plymouth  Church,  that  tlie  human  reason  should 
sit  in  judgment  on  divine  things,  and  if  it  should  be 
reported  in  the  papers  the  next  day,  thrice  a  thousand 
good  men  would  hold  up  their  hands  with  horror,  and 
exclaim,  "  Where  will  that  fellow  stop  ? "  And  yet,  if 
you  must  not  bring  human  reason  to  divine  mysteries, 


HOW   TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  51 

I  should  like  to  know  how  you  are  going  to  bring 
divine  mysteries  to  human  reason,  —  and  if  they  are 
not  brought  there,  they  are  nothing  to  you ;  or,  under 
such  circumstances,  they  do  not  exist  so  far  as  you  are 
concerned.  Just  as  though  the  Word  of  God  did  not 
appeal  to  reason  in  the  most  profound  things.  "  Come, 
now,  and  let  us  reason  together,"  saith  the  Lord.  Thus 
men  are  laid  under  obligation  to  use  their  reason.  The 
human  reason,  as  God  made  it,  and  adapted  it  to  the 
purposes  of  considering  everything  that  concerns  our 
welfare  on  earth,  —  wherefore  should  it  not  be  carried 
up  and  brought  to  bear  upon  tliose  things  which  relate 
to  our  eternal  welfare  ?  May  we  not  reasonably  say  that 
the  Iniman  reason  must  be  employed,  directly,  in  our 
judgment  of  divine  truths,  so  far  as  they  are  brought 
to  us  ?  It  is  safer  to  say  that  than  to  deny  it.  You  are 
to  take  care  and  not  fall  into  the  imperfections  to  which 
the  human  reason  may  lead ;  you  are  to  guard  against 
the  liabilities  to  error  which  accompany  its  use;  but 
you  are  not  to  deny  the  necessity  of  using  it.  Those 
imperfections  and  liabilities  may  be  allowed  for,  may 
be  accounted  for,  but  the  loss  which  would  result 
from  not  using  it  cannot  be  made  up.  And  if  you  use 
it  for  the  consideration  of  divine  themes,  saying  to 
yourself  all  the  time  that  you  do  not  use  it,  you  have 
all  the  mischiefs  to  which  the  use  of  it  renders  you  lia- 
ble, and  you  have  them  in  reduplicated  forms. 

If,  then,  you  say  that  we  must  not  mix  philosophy 
with  pure  heavenly  intelligence  as  it  is  revealed  in  the 
"Word  of  God,  I  say  that  no  man  does  read  the  Word 
of  God  without  bringing  his  philosophy  to  it. 

Thus   you  will  make  life  and   fact   an   interpreter. 


52  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

Thus  you  will  keep  Bible-truth  clown  close  to  human 
consciousness.  It  is  not  by  bringing  into  the  class-room 
reason,  experience,  those  things  which  belong  to  the 
great  community,  and  making  them  instruments  for 
interpreting  the  Bible,  that  we  change  the  proportions 
and  the  emphasis  of  truth ;  it  is  by  such  a  use  of  the 
Bible  in  the  class-room  as  makes  it  a  subject  of  dry 
philosophy,  unleavened  in  its  form  and  structure  by 
the  recognized  human  element  which  it  unsuccessfully 
attempts  to  shut  out,  that  we  are  likely  to  do  it  vio- 
lence. 

But  no  man  ought  to  suppose  that  by  his  reason,  or  by 
the  collective  reason  of  mankind,  will  ever  be  brought 
out  and  rendered  plain  the  full  of  all  that  belongs  to 
the  germinal  statements  of  Scripture.  I  take  a  single 
element,  —  "  God  is  love."  Now,  I  say  that  when  you 
take  that  text  and  announce  it,  you  are  like  a  man 
who  puts  his  foot  on  a  ship,  and  starts  out  on  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  with  the  determination  that  he  will 
know  the  depth  at  every  point,  and  every  curve  of  the 
shore,  around  and  around  the  globe.  He  has  work  for 
a  life  before  him.  Consider  any  form  of  love  that  you 
ever  knew.  Where  is  "there  in  a  word  anything  that 
can  represent  the  inflammation,  the  fruitfulness,  the 
fire,  of  that  feeling,  shooting  every  whither,  like  an 
auroral  light  by  night,  or  like  the  sunliglit  by  day  ? 
Who  can  express  it  by  a  word,  or  any  number  of 
words  ?  Sing  your  sonnet,  make  your  poem,  write 
your  descriptive  letter ;  but  after  all,  the  pure  loving 
heart,  that  has  had  the  dream  of  love  all  night  and  the 
vision  of  it  all  day,  has  had  more  experience  of  it  than 
the  whole  of  human  language  can  ever  put  together. 


HOW   TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  53 

The  thing  transcends  all  bounds  of  expression,  and  is 
immensely  larger  than  any  words  can  make  it,  even 
on  earth  and  among  men ;  and  oh !  what  must  it  he 
when  you  raise  it  to  the  proportions  and  the  power  of 
the  Infinite,  —  when  it  is  not  simply  love  as  conceived 
of  in  the  fallible  human  soul,  but  when  it  is  love  as  it 
exists  in  the  Divine  nature  ?  The  qualities  of  divinity 
reach  so  high,  they  are  so  far  beyond  the  power  of  our 
feeble  minds  to  conceive,  they  are  so  vast,  and  they 
penetrate  so  deep  into  the  recesses  of  infinity,  that 
when  we  contemplate  them,  we  say,  as  Paul  said 
after  his  most  rapturous  life  and  most  glorious  experi- 
ence, "  For  now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly ;  but 
then  face  to  face :  now  I  know  in  part ;  but  then  shall 
I  know  even  as  also  I  am  known." 

RELATIVE  VALUE  OF  BIBLE  DOCTEIXES. 

A  great  many  doctrines  that  are  contained  in  the 
Bible,  and  that  are  supposed  to  be  of  the  most  tran- 
scendent importance,  men  regard  as  important  only  on 
account  of  their  structural  relation  to  the  systems  of 
which  they  are  a  part.  There  are  a  great  many  things 
in  the  Bible  whicli,  in  and  of  themselves,  are  regarded 
as  of  very  little  consequence,  but  which  in  their  con- 
nection with  other  things  are  considered  of  very  great 
moment.  For  instance,  the  Apostle  sets  forth  how  to 
malvc  a  man  of  God  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  for 
every  good  work.  There  are  tliose  who  take  exception 
to  his  teaching  on  that  subject,  and  treat  it  as  of  little 
or  no  account ;  but  the  theologian  says,  "  If  you  do  not 
hold  that,  what  becomes  of  this,  that,  or  tlie  other 
point  in   your  system  ?      There  will  be  a  screw  loose 


54  LECTUKES   ON   PREACHING, 

■when  that  is  left  out."  And  so  men  hold  one  or 
another  doctrine  because  they  think  it  is  important 
to  the  cohesion  and  efficient  working  of  the  dif- 
ferent portions  of  their  system.  This  axle  is  con- 
nected with  that  wheel  out  yonder,  and  that  wheel 
carries  another  wheel,  and  that  another ;  and  tlie  action 
of  every  part  depends  npon  the  action  of  every  other 
part ;  and  so  it  is  deemed  indispensable  tliat  every  part 
should  be  kept  intact :  and  men's  theological  reasonings 
are  carried  on  accordingly.  Doctrines  are  largely  val- 
ued with  reference  to  their  connections  with  other  doc- 
trines. The  result  is  that  systems  of  theology  become 
more  important  in  men's  estimation  than  the  Bible  it- 
self, and  more  important  than  the  souls  of  men  for  whose 
benefit  it  was  given  to  the  world.  A  great  many  men 
preach  "  for  the  sake  of  the  truth,  the  truth,"  they 
will  tell  you ;  whereas,  I  supposed  that  men  preached 
for  the  salvation  of  tlieir  fellow-men.  "  You  must  not 
give  up  God's  truth,"  they  say,  when  you  puzzle  them. 
Wlien  you  say  to  them,  "  What  is  the  nse  of  such  a 
view  ?  what  fruit  comes  of  it  ?  what  good  does  it  do  ? " 
and  they  are  perplexed,  they  say,  "  Ah !  it  is  taught, 
and  it  must  be  maintained."  And  then  there  is  a  roll- 
call,  and  those  texts  are  trotted  out  which  are  supposed 
to  teach  that  view.  Men  are  afraid  that  if  they  give 
up  this  or  that  truth  of  dogma,  the  foundation  will  be 
taken  out  from  under  their  system,  and  they  will  have 
nothing  to  stand  on.  So,  as  men  do  not  agree  in  all 
the  doctrines  which  should  constitute  a  true  theological 
system,  we  have  Arminianism,  and  Pelagianism,  and 
Semi-Pelagianism,  and  Demi-semi-Pelagianism.  Men 
are  divided  in   reference   to  the  various  doctrines  of 


HOW  TO   USE   THE  BIBLE.  55 

religion,  some  denying  those  that  are  held  by  others, 
and  some  giving  more  emphasis  to  certain  ones  than 
others  do,  where  they  are  held  in  common ;  and  they 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  value  of  God's  truth  con- 
sists in  its  power  of  carrying  salvation  to  men.  Paul, 
you  remember,  said,  "  I  determined  not  to  know  any- 
thing among  you  save  [he  ought  to  have  said  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures,  but  he  did  not]  Jesus  Christ." 
No,  that  was  not  what  he  said :  he  said,  "  I  determined 
not  to  know  anything  among  you  save  Jesus  Christ,  — 
and  him  crucified  !  "  What  a  horror  it  was  to  those  who 
held  the  Greek  idea  of  God  to  be  told  that  he  should  be 
susceptible  of  crucifixion  !  and  what  a  horror  it  was  to 
those  in  whom  the  Jewish  prejudices  were  strong,  to 
be  told  that  their  Messiah  could  be  whelmed  in  dis- 
grace, could  be  put  to  death,  and  could  be  inclosed  in 
a  sepulcher !  And  yet  Paul  would  not  equivocate  to 
them,  and  he  said,  "  I  did  not  come  to  preach  to  you 
old  ceremonials  or  old  laws,  however  good ;  I  came  to 
present  Christ  to  you  in  the  most  offensive  M^ay  that 
lie  can  be  presented."  That  was  the  best  way  in  which 
he  could  lift  them  out  of  their  mere  physical  idea  of 
God,  and  therefore  he  would  not  abandon  it. 

SELECTION   OF   DOCTRINE  FOR  PREACHING. 

This  change  of  emphasis  and  proportion  in  truth  opens 
a  very  wide  field  for  investigation,  and  perhaps  it  better 
becomes  an  essay  than  a  lecture ;  so  I  will  only  an- 
nounce it,  and  say  that  in  your  career  in  the  seminary 
it  is  worth  your  while  to  learn  all  tlie  doctrines  of 
the  Bible  as  they  are  related  to  theological  systems  ; 
but  that  when  you  come  to  preach  you  will  certainly 


66  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

very  soon  sift  what  you  know,  or  what  you  think 
you  know ;  and  you  will  find  that  one  and  another 
thing  which  never  seemed  of  much  importance  in 
the  lecture-room  are  beginning  to  be  very  important 
in  your  regard.  In  other  words,  if  you  are  true  men, 
and  if  you  go  out  into  the  world  to  preach,  with 
the  idea  that  Christianity  is  the  work  of  creating 
divine  manhood  among  men,  that  it  is  the  Avork  of 
bringing  the  power  of  God  to  bear,  through  the  truth, 
upon  human  nature,  then,  in  spite  of  yourself,  you 
will  take  the  things  which  strike  the  most  directly 
at  men's  interior  natures,  and  obliterate  their  preju- 
dices, and  draw  forth  their  sympathies,  and  bring  them 
higher  and  higher  toward  God,  along  new  lines  of 
interpretation  and  measurement  and  criticism.  There 
will  be  this  or  that  doctrine  that  you  deemed  of  very 
great  importance,  and  that  you  thought  you  would 
preach  about,  but  that  somehow  or  other  you  do  not  get 
a  chance  to  take  up. 

You  will  find  old  men  who  will  say  to  you,  "  Sir,  you 
should  give  to  every  man  his  portion  in  due  season." 
Yes,  you  should ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  you  should 
give  to  every  man  something  of  everything  as  being  his 
portion.  Every  mother  gives  to  her  child  its  milk  in 
due  season,  as  its  portion  ;  but  she  does  not  give  roast 
beef  to  the  babe  on  her  bosom.  Every  physician  gives 
to  each  patient  under  his  care  his  portion  of  medicine 
in  due  season,  but  he  does  not  give  to  all  his  patients 
the  same  medicine.  He  may  not  give  in  one  family,  as 
long  as  he  lives,  that  which  he  is  continually  giving  in 
another  family.  One  disease  requires  one  sort  of  treat- 
ment, and  another  disease  another  sort.      Sometimes 


HOW  TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  57 

astringents  are  necessary,  and  sometimes  emollients. 
Here  stimulants  are  needful,  and  there  sedatives.  The 
Idnds  of  medicine  which  shall  be  given  are  determined 
by  the  condition  of  the  patient. 

Now,  it  is  said,  "  You  must  give  men  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  God's  moral  government  in  the  universe";  but  I 
say  that  it  is  not  all  in  the  Bible.  It  is  not  discovered 
yet.  Some  of  the  elements  of  it  are  there,  but  not  all 
of  them.  The  whole  system  of  God's  moral  govern- 
ment has  not  been  disclosed.  It  may  be  thought  pre- 
sumptuous to  say  so,  but  it  is  true.  And  I  say,  further, 
that  it  is  not  the  rule  of  the  Bible  to  undertake  to 
disclose  the  whole  of  the  royalty  of  the  Divine  govern- 
ment, or  of  the  Divine  nature.  You  cannot  find  out 
these  things  to  perfection. 

What,  then,  are  you  to  do  ?  You  are  to  use  the  truth 
of  God  as  you  would  use  materials  for  erecting  a  build- 
ing, not  all  at  once,  but  in  their  proper  order.  The 
growth  of  manhood  is  not  instantaneous,  but  gradual. 
The  developing  of  a  man  in  holy  faith  is  a  work  into 
which  enter  the  elements  of  selection,  proportion,  em- 
phasis, and  frequency. 

THE   preacher's   BIBLE. 

This  would  naturally  lead  me  to  speak,  though  I 
need  not,  of  the  preacher's  Bible,  which  is  really  the 
combination  of  the .  otlier  two.  The  Bible  of  the 
preacher  may  be,  and  ought  to  be,  the  Bible  of  the 
class-room,  but  it  must  be  especially  a  personal,  private 
Bible.  No  man  is  fit  to  preach  who  has  not  felt  his 
own  need  of  the  Bible,  or  of  the  truths  tliat  are  in  it. 
Ko  man  is  fit  to  preach  whose  garments  do  not  smell 

3* 


08  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

of  tlie  fire  of  agony.  Spurzlieim  said,  "  No  woman  is  fit 
to  be  married  wlio  has  not  seen  great  affliction."  That 
is  the  intensive  form  in  which  he  expressed  his  judgment 
as  to  the  benefits  of  the  ripening  influence  of  sorrow. 

A  young  man  who  goes  out  to  preach  is  never  or- 
dained when  the  consecrating  hand  has  been  laid  on 
his  head,  and  he  has  entered  upon  the  ministry.  The 
ceremony  of  ordination  is  very  well  as  far  as  it  goes : 
but  not  until  the  providence  of  God  has  put  its  hand 
upon  you ;  not  until  you  have  ached  and  wept  and 
prayed  in  secret  places ;  not  until  you  have  realized 
your  weakness  and  un worthiness,  and  said,  "Would 
God  that  I  were  dead  "  ;  not  until  you  have  felt  tliat 
your  appareling  is  as  nothing ;  not  until  with  unutter- 
able desire  you  have  turned  to  God  with  the  meekness 
and  humility  and  gentleness  and  sweetness  of  a  child, 
and  been  conscious  that  you  were  carried  in  the  arms 
of  his  love,  —  not  until  then  will  you  be  fully  ordained. 
But  when  you  have  had  this  administration,  how 
blessed  the  Word  of  God  will  be  to  you !  It  may  be 
that  you  will  not  want  to  read  some  parts  of  it ;  the 
mother  does  not  sing  everything  that  there  is  in  the 
music-book  ;  she  sings  those  tunes  which  are  sweetest 
to  her  children  and  to  herself;  and  so  you  will  read 
those  portions  of  the  Bible  which  are  appropriate  to 
your  need.  You  will  each  get  from  that  beautiful 
tree,  the  Word  of  God,  such  fruit  as  you  require  for 
your  consolation  and  encouragement  in  life,  and  for 
your  up-building  in  righteousness. 

You  will  have  your  private  Bible  from  which  you 
will  derive  light  and  food  and  comfort  according  to 
circumstances ;  then  you  will  have  your  Bible  of  the 


HOW  TO   USE   THE   BIBLE.  59 

class-room,  "by  the  aid  of  whicli  you  will  attempt  to 
bring  under  one  comprehensive  arrangement  of  suc- 
cessional  development  tlie  principal  ideas  which  per- 
tain to  God  and  his  relations  to  mankind,  —  always 
understanding  that  "we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly"; 
and  at  last  you  will  come  to  the  preacher's  Bible  itself, 
with  all  its  vast  resources,  from  which  you  will  take 
truths  that  are  good  for  your  own  soul  and  for  other 
men's  souls,  that  you  may  bring  them,  with  all  the  vigor 
and  unction  and  emotion  which  comes  from  your  per- 
sonal participation  in  them,  home  to  the  salvation  of 
men.  When  you  have  the  preacher's  Bible,  you  have 
that  which  is  like  a  living  power,  and  you  are  a  trum- 
pet, and  the  life  of  God  is  behind  you,  so  that  the  words 
which  come  from  you  are  breathed  by  him. 


III. 

THE  TEUE  METHOD  OF  PEESENTING  GOD. 

February  18,  1874. 
THE   GREAT   COMMANDMENT. 

'  E  often  lose  the  importance  of  tlie  sayings 
of  the  New  Testament  by  familiarity  with 
them.  I  am  sure  no  man  can  adequately 
understand  (so  great  is  it)  the  declaration 
of  our  Saviour, "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind."  Although  no  famil- 
iarity can  quite  stale  that,  yet,  having  heard  it  from  our 
childhood,  and  slid  over  it  unthinkingly,  we  may  not 
see  it  opening  itself  up  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  all  the 
avenues  of  meaning  which  are  really  in  it. 

In  tlie  first  place,  it  is  very  remarkable  how  intense 
is  the  homage,  and  indeed  what  is  the  kind  of  homage, 
which  is  required.  It  is  not  obedience  simply ;  it  is  not 
awe ;  it  is  not  admiration ;  it  is  love,  —  the  deepest,  the 
strongest,  the  most  comprehensive  of  all  human  ex- 
periences. Nor  is  it  merely  a  love  which  acts  mildly. 
The  cumulation  of  phrase  upon  phrase,  which  we  find 
employed  in  that  command,  shows  the  weakness  of 
language,  and  the  strength  of  the  thing  to  be  expressed. 


THE  TRUE   METHOD   OF  PRESENTING   GOD.  61 

It  is  a  love  that  is  to  be  made  up  of  all  that  there  is 
in  man. 

And  this  is  not  all ;  we  are  to  consider  that  this  love 
is  to  be  expressed  not  toward  our  father,  not  toward 
our  mother,  not  toward  our  natural  kindred ;  that  it  is 
not  to  run  out  through  the  open  avenues  of  friendship ; 
but  that  it  is  to  be  directed  toward  a  great  invisible 
Being,  whom  the  eye  never  saw,  whom  the  ear  never 
heard,  whom  the  hand  never  grasped.  That  invisible 
presence  named  "God"  is  to  be  the  object  of  the  strong- 
est affection  of  which  the  human  mind  is  capable. 
Now,  when  we  think  how  hard  it  is  for  men  to  adapt 
themselves  to  duties  that  are  visible,  or  to  yield  to 
influences  that  carry  with  them  collateral  motives  and 
incitements,  we  may  well  suppose  that  it  would  be  hard 
for  them  to  make  an  invisible  Presence,  who  does  not 
address  himself  to  us  through  any  of  the  ordinary  chan- 
nels of  the  human  mind,  the  object  of  such  overpower- 
ing affection  as  this. 

There  is  another  consideration.  Not  only  is  this  the 
command  of  God  in  the  incarnated  Christ  Jesus,  but  we 
are  to  add  his  declaration  that  around  about  it  cling 
the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  When 
unfolded  they,  surround  this  great  Center.  Such  was 
their  meaning,  as  they  were  interpreted  in  the  ancient 
day.  All  the  prophets  and  early  writers  and  law- 
givers of  the  Hebrews  meant  but  this  :  "  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind ; 
and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  —  the  two  great  divisions 
of  the  command. 


62  LECTURES  ON  PKEACHING. 


THE  OBJECTS  OF  PREACHING. 

Now,  if  this  is  the  great  central  idea,  then  the  preach- 
ing of  God  is  the  foundation  of  all  pulpit  instruction 
and  of  all  true  systems  of  religion,  and  in  preaching 
this  you  will  strike  the  central  source  of  power.  If, 
therefore,  a  man  is  to  preach  well,  it  is  not  enough  for 
him  to  preach  duties  and  relations ;  it  is  not  enough 
for  him  to  preach  the  analysis  of  human  thought  and 
feeling ;  it  is  not  enough  for  him  to  preach  all  the  in- 
flections of  experience  in  human  life :  there  must  be 
such  a  development  of  the  Divine  as  shall  make  itself 
the  center  of  the  preacher's  power. 

And  take  note  that,  in  developing  the  character  of 
God,  it  is  not  enough  for  you  to  unfold  a  character  that 
is  strong,  and  just,  and  wise.  You  must  so  present  the 
idea  of  God  as  to  make  men  love  him.  And  although 
you  may  plead  that  the  carnal  man  has  no  aptitude 
by  nature  for  the  comprehension  of  divine  things ; 
though  you  may  plead  that  there  are  traits,  attributes, 
qualities,  in  the  Divine  nature,  and  features  in  the 
Divine  government,  which  will  naturally  repel  selfish- 
ness and  pride  in  man  (all  of  which  is  true,  —  more  true 
than  we  can  imagine),  nevertheless,  the  Divine  charac- 
ter is  altogether  lovely ;  and  there  are  corresponding 
traits  in  man  which  stand  over  against  every  one  of  its 
great  elements.  It  is  in  the  power  of  man  to  come 
into  sympathy  with  them.  There  are  adaptations  in 
him  which,  when  quickened  by  the  effluent  Spirit  of 
God,  draw  him  toward  that  Spirit.  There  are  in  the 
human  mind  predispositions  and  powers  which  adapt 
it  to  an  experience  of  the  feeling  of  love  to  God.     That 


THE   TRUE   JIETHOD    OF   PEESENTING   GOD.  G3 

men  do  not  often  use  tliese,  and  that  they  cannot  easily 
use  them,  does  not  touch  the  c[uestion ;  for,  under  the 
influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit  which  goes  with  your 
work  of  preaching,  tliere  is  that  in  man  which  enables 
him  to  see  and  to  love  what  is  lovely  in  God. 

Preaching,  then,  has  a  twofold  object :  namely,  to 
develop  the  character  of  God  so  as,  first,  to  make  men 
see  how  unlovely  is  the  manner  of  their  own  life  ;  and 
then  to  attract  them  and  inspire  them  with  aspiration 
toward  the  loveliness  of  the  Divine.  And  I  shall  speak 
to  you  this  afternoon  especially  on  the  subject  of  preach- 
ing God,  or,  more  explicitly,  on  the  subject  of  the  true 
mode  of  presenting  the  nature  of  God  to  men  so  that 
they  may  understand  it  and  love  it. 

men's  ideas  of  god  :  THE  TEUE  LOVEES. 

When  you  go  into  your  respective  parishes,  it  will 
not  do  for  you  to  take  your  own  class-feeling  along 
with  you.  It  will  not  do  for  you  to  take  it  for  granted, 
unthinkingly,  that  everybody  has  about  your  state  of 
mind  in  regard  to  God.  It  becomes  a  part  of  your 
duty,  if  you  are  a  wise  pastor,  to  investigate  and  find 
out  just  what  is  the  condition  of  those  among  whom 
you  are  to  labor.  I  think  your  experience  will  be 
about  this,  in  ordinary  parishes  :  you  will  find,  first,  a 
rare  few  who  love  with  a  love  which  really  overmas- 
ters every  other  feeling,  —  which,  like  sunlight,  shines 
down  and  gives  color  to  every  other  affection,  sur- 
rounding all,  penetrating  all,  mounting  higher  than  all, 
and  making  itself  the  center  of  life,  —  natures  that 
have  this  true  appreciation  of  God,  bear  it  about  with 
them  day  and  night,  and  can  say,  "  Lord,  whom  have  I 


64  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

in  heaven  but  thee  ?  and  who  is  there  on  earth  that  I 
desire  in  comparison  with  thee  ? " 

There  are  persons  whose  thought  of  God  is  perpetual 
music  to  them.  In  the  morning,  at  noontide,  and  in 
the  evening,  they  are  still  with  God.  Their  thoughts 
rise  as  naturally  to  him  as  vapors  rise  to  the  drawing 
of  the  sun.  The  number  of  these,  however,  is  very, 
very  small ;  and  they  are  found  mostly  among  women, 
or  among  men  in  whom  the  emotional  or  woman-nature 
is  large.  They  are  not  often  found  among  practical 
men,  or  men  of  a  speculative  turn  of  mind.  Once  in  a 
while,  in  a  rare  case,  like  that  of  Jonathan  Edwards, 
who  possessed  a  comprehensive,  speculative  nature, 
there  is  that  experience  of  the  recognition  of  the  Di- 
vine, the  ever-presence  of  God,  which  enables  one  to 
say  that  all  his  life  long  he  has  walked  with  God ;  but 
as  I  have  already  said,  such  cases  are  very  infrequent, 

CONVENTIONALISTS. 

You  will  find,  next,  a  great  many  who  will  talk  as  if 
they  had  this  experience,  and  perhaps  even  think  they 
have,  while  they  have  it  not ;  that  is  to  say,  there 
springs  up,  under  the  constant  ministration  of  the  gos- 
pel, a  peculiar  form  of  conventionalism,  such  that 
persons,  who  know  what  their  duty  is,  talk  as  if  the 
fulfillment  of  that  known  duty,  after  which  they  are 
striving,  were  their  actual  condition,  "  with  such  quali- 
fications and  limitations,  of  course,  as  belong  to  poor 
human  nature,"  they  say.  If  you  scrutinize  and  go 
behind  the  conventional  expressions  which  are  used, 
you  will  generally  find  that  in  those  who  even  honestly 
use  them  there  is  no  such  sense  of  an  ever-present  God, 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  PRESENTING  GOD.     65 

in  beauty  and  glory,  as  really  fires  and  fills  their  souls, 
and  illumines  their  experience. 

GENERAL  BELIEVERS. 

Next,  you  will  find  (and  in  larger  numbers)  those 
wlio  have  an  intellectual  conception  of  God,  —  well- 
educated  men  and  women,  —  who  now  and  then  are 
kindled  into  a  glow  by  that  conception  ;  who,  under 
the  excitement  of  special  griefs  and  sorrows,  or  under 
the  stimulus  of  peculiar  joys,  or  under  the  influence  of 
protracted  meetings  or  other  unusual  occasions,  or  in 
consequence  of  those  rare  conjunctions  which  occur, 
and  which  light  up  everything  and  fill  everything  with 
glory,  —  as  does  this  day  from  out  of  the  bosom  of  win- 
ter, —  who,  under  such  circumstanc(^,  they  know  not 
how  nor  why,  have  distinct  conceptions  of  God  and  of 
his  attributes,  so  co-ordinated  that  all  their  objections 
are  answered,  and  they  do  come  to  have  a  general 
faith  in  God.  But  it  is  not  a  God  present  that,  they 
conceive  of.  It  is  God,  but  it  is  not  hnmanucl,  —  it  is 
not  God  present  ivith  us.  These,  as  I  remarked,  form  a 
much  larger  class  than  the  others  of  whom  I  spoke. 

THE  RESPECTABLE   MAJORITY. 

Next  to  them  is  a  still  larger  class,  that  constitute 
the  great  middle  portion  of  society,  as  they  will  of  your 
parish,  namely,  those  who  have,  in  the  main,  only  about 
this  conception  of  God,  and  of  his  character  and  admin- 
istration :  that  there  is  the  heaven  above ;  the  earth 
beneath ;  the  succession  of  the  seasons ;  the  frame- 
work of  universal  government ;  and,  above  all  these. 
One  who  made  them,  and  wound  them  up,  and  rolled 


66  LECTUKES   ON   PREACHING, 

them  out,  and  keeps  them  agoing,  and  takes  care  of 
them.  To  them  God  is  the  great  Functionary  of  the 
universe.  Sometimes,  in  their  estimation,  he  is  Archi- 
tect ;  he  is  Machinist,  sometimes  ;  he  is  Administrator, 
sometimes.  They  regard  him  as  the  One  who  does 
everything.  They  look  upon  him  very  much  as  we 
look  upon  the  "  government "  at  Washington,  as  having 
not  much  personality,  but  a  great  deal  of  function.  It 
seems  to  me  that  such  is  the  abiding  state  of  mind  in 
regard  to  the  Divinity  among  what  we  call  the  respect- 
able and  reasonable  class  in  the  community.  They 
have  no  great  distinctness  of  thought  concerning  God. 
They  think  of  him  as  the  performer  of  great  functions, 
rather  than  as  a  person. 

HOME-HEATHEN. 

Then  comes  the  s;reat  under-class,  a  nebulous-minded 
people,  who  neither  know  nor  think  much  about  God. 
You  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  many  there  are  of 
them.  You  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  many  there 
are  of  them  in  New  Haven.  I  have  noticed  that  the 
worst  people  are  in  New  England,  as  well  as  the  best. 
I  have  noticed,  for  instance,  that  if  you  take  the  class 
of  skeptics,  they  are  more  malignant  and  viperous,  a 
hundred  times,  in  New  England,  than  they  are  in  New 
Orleans.  The  pressure  of  moral  feeling  is  so  great  here 
that  if  men  do  not  submit  to  it,  it  crowds  them  down, 
and  at  bottom  they  oppose  it  and  resent  it,  and  bring 
against  it  everything  that  is  hard  in  New  England 
resistance.  There  is  an  intensity  and  vitality  to  their 
opposition  which  is  fearful,  sometimes. 

Then  there  is  also  an  ignorance  in  New  Eniiland,  I 


THE   TRUE   METHOD   OF   PRESENTIXG   GOD,  C.7 

think,  such  as  you  will  hardly  find  anywhere  else.  Tt 
may  not  be  so  right  where  you  live,  nor  just  where 
your  mission  school  is,  perhaps  ;  but  not  far  from  your 
vicinity  it  is  so.  If  you  search  all  the  neighborhood 
around,  you  will  find  men  that  are  ignorant  enough. 
You  do  not  need  to  go  a  great  way  from  home  to  be 
among  the  heathen.  If  you  take  the  trouble  to  look  up 
those  who  are  degraded,  and  you  regard  every  man  in 
the  township  as  worthy  of  your  acquaintance,  and  you 
ffausre  him,  and  sound  his  intellectual  state  and  moral 
consciousness,  and  find  what  level  he  stands  on,  you 
will  be  astonished  at  the  number  of  those  who  live  not 
only  without  hope,  but  literally  without  God  in  the 
world. 

Here,  then,  is  your  work  laid  out  for  you  as  a 
preacher  of  the  gospel.  You  may  have  a  primary  rela- 
tion to  the  Church ;  but  no  matter  what  community 
you  are  settled  in,  you  are  settled  for  the  sake  of  that 
community  ;  and  you  are  to  bear  your  distributive  part 
of  the  labor  which  needs  to  be  performed  outside  of 
church  walls.  You  are  to  preach  the  great  central 
truth  of  the  universe  of  God  so  that  it  shall  be  made 
known  to  the  ignorant,  and  be  made  more  intelligible 
to  those  who  know  him  already,  although  you  can  be 
but  an  auxiliary  to  those  who  have  an  intellectual  con- 
ception of  the  Divine  nature.  You  have  an  important 
work  in  preaching  to  those  who  think  of  God  merely 
in  his  functions  ;  but  still  more  important  is  your  work 
in  behalf  of  that  great  under-class  wliich  represents,  I 
might  almost  say,  the  detritus  of  society. 


68  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 


HOW  TO  PREACH  GOD. 

I  merely  allude  to  these  things.  The  question  which 
I  purpose  to  discuss  this  afternoon  is,  simply :  How 
shall  the  character  of  God  be  presented,  not  to  your- 
selves, but  to  others,  in  such  a  way  that  they  shall 
accept  this  great  ideal,  this  invisible  fact,  this  truth, 
which  lies  outside  of  the  sphere  of  the  ordinary  senses  ? 
That  is  a  theme  which  is  worth  your  pondering. 

HIS   PERSONALITY   TO    BE   REALIZED. 

A  personal  sense  of  God,  then,  you  are  to  beget 
among  the  people  of  your  charge. 

In  doing  this,  you  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  in  moral 
things,  as  in  esthetics,  as  in  mathematics,  as  in  poetry, 
as  in  oratory,  as  in  any  department  in  which  the  mind 
acts,  men  have  different  degrees  of  recipiency.  That 
which  is  easy  for  one  man  is  often  very  diflicult  for 
another,  owing  to  the  difference  in  their  framework, 
or  else  owing  to  depravities  by  which  the  moral  sense 
has  been  lowered  in  tone  or  almost  obliterated.  There- 
fore, you  will  succeed  almost  without  effort  with  some 
while  you  will  succeed  with  others  only  by  very  great 
labor.     With  many  the  task  will  be  long  and  severe. 

You  should  not  go  into  this  work  with  the  conscious- 
ness that  you  are  to  get  up  a  series  of  sermons,  say,  on 
the  attributes  of  God,  discussing  first  all  his  natural 
attributes,  and  secondly,  all  his  moral  attributes,  for 
you  may  preach  on  the  natural  and  moral  attributes 
of  God,  and  not  preach  God  at  all.  If  you  were  to 
go  into  the  consideration  of  the  Divine  attributes  you 
would  have  so  many  discussions  of  so  many  questions 


THE   TRUE   METHOD    OF   PRESENTING   GOD.  69 

of  mental  philosophy  that  you  would  fail  to  unfold 
the  idea  of  a  jjrcscnt  God,  of  whom  these  are  economic 
elements.  Your  task  is  not  alone,  as  you  will  see,  to 
discuss  those  qualities  which  belong  to  the  universal 
mind,  but  to  succeed  in  presenting  this  abstract,  ideal 
Being  in  such  a  way  that  he  shall  be  a  real  Being  to 
those  who  hear  you. 

HIS   EXISTENCE   NOT   TO    BE   ARGUED. 

I  have  not,  therefore,  much  opinion  of  attempts  to 
prove  the  existence  of  God.  I  doubt  whether  any  man 
will  ever  be  won  from  skepticism  by  having  the  exist- 
ence of  God  proved  to  him.  I  doubt  it  because  I  doubt 
whether  the  evidence  of  God's  existence  comes  to  our 
sensuous  reason.  If  it  does,  I  think  it  comes  remotely, 
and  as  an  auxiliary  to  an  impression  that  has  already 
been  established  on  other  grounds.  My  own  feeling  is 
that  you  may  very  safely  assume  the  existence  of  God, 
and  that,  having  assumed  it,  your  chief  work  in  this 
direction  will  be  to  illustrate  the  Divine  nature.  There 
is  at  the  bottom  a  moral  consciousness  in  mankind  such 
that  when  you  shall  have  skillfully  and  correctly  un- 
folded the  true  character  of  God,  especially  as  pertain- 
ing to  personahty,  the  mind  will  naturally  accept  it. 

There  is  no  use  of  demonstrating  to  men  that  there 
is  music  in  one  of  Mozart's  or  Beethoven's  spnphonies. 
Play  it,  and  I  will  defy  them  to  get  rid  of  saying  that 
there  is  music  in  it.     They  recognize  it  at  once. 

You  may  fail  to  demonstrate  by  logical  argument 
that  you  are  good-natured;  but  if  you  stay  with  an 
ugly  man  all  day,  and  never  lose  your  temper,  and 
repay  sweetness  for  sourness,  and  kindness  for  unkind- 


70  LECTURES   ON   FKEACIIING. 

ness,  he  will  be  obliged  to  acknowledge  tliat  you  are 
good-natured.  You  could  not  prove  to  him  in  words 
that  you  had  a  good-natured  disposition,  but  he  could 
not  resist  the  conviction  that  you  had,  if  you  were  in 
his  presence,  and  were  uniformly  good-natured. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  the  action  of  being  on  being. 
We  recognize  it  in  lower  life ;  and  my  belief  is,  that  it 
belongs  still  more  essentially  to  the  higher  life.  When 
the  being  of  God  itself  is  unfolded  by  the  Divine  Spirit, 
and  made  luminous,  there  is  a  moral  consciousness  in 
the  mind  of  man  which  cannot  help  responding.  I 
believe  that  this  moral  consciousness  is  universal,  and 
that  in  the  presence  of  it  argument  falls  to  the  ground 
as  needless. 

I  have,  besides  this,  a  conviction  that  without  a 
proper  appeal  to  this  moral  consciousness,  the  mere  in- 
tellect being  addressed,  arguments  to  prove  that  there 
is  a  God  will  have  no  more  effect  than  hailstones  on 
Gibraltar. 

There  is  no  objection  to  a  man's  arguing  the  subject 
of  the  existence  of  God  from  the  pulpit,  if  he  is  pretty 
sure  that  his  people  believe  it ;  but  unless  he  knows 
that  it  is  an  accepted  truth  among  them,  I  m^ouM  ad- 
vise him  not  to  argue  it.  As  has  been  said  by  Jou- 
bert  (whose  wisdom  is  of  a  high  order,  and  whose 
writings  I  wish  could  be  translated),  there  is  danger  of 
exciting  unbelief  by  attempting  to  argue  things  which 
are  not  within  the  sphere  of  argument,  the  effect  being 
to  stir  up  combativeness  in  men,  and  the  gladiatorial 
spirit.  A  man  may  be  led  to  meet  your  arguments, 
—  by  which,  as  it  were,  you  defy  investigation,  —  with 
a  skepticism  Avhicli  otiierwise  would  slumber. 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  PEESENTING  GOD.     71 


MAN  S  MORAL  NEED  TO  BE  MET. 

I  would  recommend  you  not  to  attempt,  tlien,  unless 
you  are  pretty  sure  of  your  people,  to  argue  that  there 
is  a  God,  nor  to  attempt  to  prove  his  existence.  I 
should  assume  it,  always.  But  there  should  be  a  pres- 
entation of  God  which  should  meet  that  moral  con- 
sciousness of  which  I  have  spoken.  I  know  not  that 
I  shall  make  myself  quite  understood,  but  I  think 
there  can  be  a  presentation  of  God  made  which  all 
men's  hearts,  at  one  time  or  another,  would  crave  fer- 
vently, and  of  which  they  would  say,  "  Let  it  be  true  ! 
Let  it  he  true  !  "  I  can  conceive  of  such  a  presentation 
of  God,  as  monarchical  and  despotic,  that  all  good  men 
would  say,  "  0,  let  it  not  be  true  ! "  There  is  surely 
such  a  way  of  making  known  God,  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  at  one  time  or  another  men  under  burdens, 
men  in  sorrow,  men  whose  hopes  have  been  blighted, 
men  who  are  without  sympathy  in  life,  lonely  men, 
troubled  men,  dissatisfied  men,  men  aching  with  pride 
and  selfishness,  —  first  or  last,  men  like  these  shall  be 
buoyed  up  by  it,  it  shall  be  to  them  like  the  coming 
on  of  spring  to  the  patient  in  her  chamber,  and  every 
aspiration  in  them  shall  say,  "  0,  let  there  he  such  a 
\  God  !     / need  him." 

At  such  a  time  as  this,  when  science  is  tending  to 
undermine  men's  faith,  when  so  many  influences  are 
drawing  us  away  from  a  conception  of  God,  and  plant- 
ing doctrine  on  sensuous  foundations  (where  it  cannot 
be  demonstrated),  the  wise  course,  it  seems  to  me,  is  to 
lift  up  such  a  conception  of  the  Divine  nature  that 
everything  that  is  true  and  noble  in  men  shall  long  for 


72  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

it.  God  slioiild  be  made  so  altogether  lovely  in  the 
preacher's  presentation  of  him,  that  the  world  will  not 
consent  to  have  him  dethroned  from  their  ideas  or  from 
their  faith. 

THREE  ELEMENTS   OF  PRESENTATION. 

There  are  three  things,  then,  that  you  should  seek  to 
do  in  attempting  to  present  God  to  men  aright,  —  first, 
to  establish  his  'personality ;  second,  to  illustrate  his 
disposition ;  third,  to  give  and  keep  a  sense  of  his 
presence.  These  three  elements  —  personality,  disposi- 
tion or  character,  and  ever-presence  —  it  is  important 
to  unfold,  so  that  God  shall  be  a  God  ivith  us,  and  not  a 
God  afar  off  from  us. 

THE   DIVINE   PERSONALITY. 

As  regards  the  Divine  personality,  I  speak  of  it  as 
distinguished,  in  the  first  place,  from  pantheism,  or 
from  those  things  which  tend  toward  an  impersonal 
God.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  go  into  a  discussion 
of  the  idea  that  God  is  the  universe,  as  he  has  been 
represented  to  be.  I  only  say  that  this  idea  is  a  thing 
so  scattered,  so  absolutely  unconcentrated,  that  it  is  in 
effect  a  mere  atmosphere,  and  an  atmosphere  so  rarefied 
that  men  cannot  breathe  it.  It  is  absolutely  without 
moral  effect.  And,  although  it  may  seem  to  be  very 
harmless,  yet,  to  say  "  no  God  "  is  to  me  no  worse  than 
to  say  "  impersonal  God." 

Next  to  this,  I  rank  what  are  called  the  theories  of 
"  the  unknowable  "  in  God.  Men  hold,  almost  a  priori, 
that  the  Divine  nature  must  be  so  very  high  above 
ours,  that  it  is  not  knowable  by  us.     No  person  at  all 


THE   TRITE   METHOD    OF   PRESENTING   GOD.  73 

instructed  in  the  Word  of  God  ever  teaches  that  we 
can  perfectly  understand  the  Almighty ;  but  cannot 
the  human  mind  grasp  so  much  of  the  Divine  nature 
as  to  know  it  in  kind,  if  not  in  degree  ?  May  we  not 
know  the  quality  of  God's  being,  without  knowing  its 
^  quantity  ?  May  we  not  know  what  water  is,  when  we 
see  a  drop  ?  May  I  not  know  wliat  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
is  made  of,  by  seeing  a  tumblerful  of  water  ?  As  far 
as  it  goes,  a  drop  is  the  same  as  the  sea,  —  the  same,  not 
in  magnitude,  but  in  quality.  The  rill  that  comes  run- 
ning down  from  the  seams  of  the  rock,  and  the  flowing 
stream  that  helps  to  make  the  gushing  river  below,  and 
the  lake  into  which  the  river  empties,  —  all  these  are 
types  of  the  ocean ;  that  is,  they  tell  me  what  water  is. 
They  cannot  exactly  tell  me  what  sliapes  it  assumes,  or 
what  its  power  is ;  but  from  these  I  can  learn  its  con- 
stituent elements  just  as  I  could  from  the  Atlantic  it- 
self. And  although  there  is  much  that  is  unknowable 
in  regard  to  the  Divine  nature,  yet  there  are  elements 
of  it  which  may  be  known,  and  which,  being  known, 
make  it  a  power  on  the  hearts  and  consciences  of 
men. 

To  say  to  me  that  a  thing  is  of  a  different  color  from 
anything  that  we  know ;  to  tell  me  that  its  color  is 
magnificent,  but  that  it  is  not  white,  nor  black,  nor 
red,  nor  green,  nor  blue,  nor  yellow,  nor  purple ;  to 
tell  me  that  it  comes  neai^er  to  red  than  anything  else, 
but  that  it  does  not  come  near  to  that  at  all ;  to  tell 
me  that  it  comes  near  to  something  tliat  it  does  not 
resemble,  but  that  it  would  resemble  if  it  were  some- 
thing very  different  from  what  it  is,  —  would  be  not 
only  to  give  me   no  conception   of  the  thing,   but  to 

VOL.    HI.  4 


74  LECTURES   ON   PEEACHING. 

destroy  any  conception,  of  it  which  I  might  already 
have.  And  to  say  to  me  of  the  Divine  nature,  that  it 
comes  near  to  intellection,  but  that  it  is  not  intellec- 
tion ;  that  it  comes  near  to  the  will,  but  that  it  is  not 
the  will ;  that  it  comes  near  to  benevolence,  but  that 
it  is  not  benevolence,  is  to  annihilate  my  conception 
of  that  nature.  These  terms  which  seem  to  describe 
'  the  Supreme  Being  to  men  have  the  effect  of  destroy- 
ing the  influence  on  their  minds  of  the  representation 
which  is  made  of  him. 

THE    USES   OF   ANALYSIS. 

Personality,  as  distinguished  from  abstract  analysis, 
is  one  of  the  ends  which  you  are  to  seek.  Do  not  mis- 
understand me  by  thinking  that  I  am  disposed  to  dis- 
suade you  from  a  philosophical  analysis  of  the  Divine 
nature.  It  is  a  part  of  mental  pliilosophy,  and  it  be- 
I  longs  to  a  scientific  study  of  that  philosophy ;  but  at  the 
same  time  an  analysis  of  it  takes  away  its  life-form. 

You  may  analyze  a  flower,  in  order  to  understand 
it ;  but  if  there  were,  only  one  flower  in  the  universe, 
as  soon  as  you  analyzed  it  there  would  no  longer  be 
one,  —  it  would  be  gone.  If  you  take  it  to  pieces  to 
examine  it,  and  if  you  submit  it  to  the  laboratory,  you 
have  the  elements  of  it,  but  not  its  organic  structure. 
Certainly  you  have  not  its  life.  That  has  been  taken 
away  by  the  analysis.  If  there  are  plenty  of  flowers, 
and,  after  you  have  analyzed  one,  you  go  back  to  the 
life-form,  then  you  gain  ;  but  in  the  simple  analysis 
you  lose.  In  merely  analyzing  God  you  lose,  because 
you  place  him  in  the  category  of  abstract  ideas.  You 
take  away  his  vitality,  as  I  might  say,  so  that  he  is  no 


THE   TEUE   METHOD   OF   PRESENTING   GOD.  7C» 

more  a  Divine  Being.  Thus,  when  you  argue  that  God 
is  the  sum  of  love,  the  sum  of  benevolence,  the  sum  of 
universal  power,  you  may  properly  take  every  one  of 
those  elements  and  analyze  it ;  but  you  should  not 
deceive  yourself  by  supposing  that  in  that  way  you 
are  making  known  a  personal  God.  It  is  not  until, 
having  gone  through  the  process  of  analysis,  you  begin 
the  work  of  synthesis,  and  bring  back  these  qualities 
into  a  personal  form,  that  you  have  increased  the 
knowledge  of  men  concerning  God.  It  is  a  personal 
God,  made  up  of  these  things,  that  you  want  to  bring 
before  the  minds  of  men. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  what  would  take  place.  I  ask 
an  artist  to  paint  for  me  the  portrait  of  a  man.  I  say 
to  him :  "  I  will  describe  the  man  as  he  is,  and  I  M'ant 
you  to  represent  him  on  canvas.  First,  he  has  a  bone 
system,  —  mark  that  down,  Mr.  Painter ;  secondly,  he 
has  a  muscular  system,  —  add  that;  he  also  has  an 
arterial  and  venous  system,  —  add  that  too  ;  then  he 
has  a  nerve  system,  which  begins  at  the  head,  and  runs 
all  the  way  down  through  the  man,  —  put  that  in  ;  he 
has  likewise  a  forehead,  eyes,  a  nose,  a  mouth,  and 
ears, —  these  are  to  be  included."  Could  an  artist  paint 
a  portrait  from  such  an  inventory  of  qualities  ?  Could 
he  represent  any  part  of  a  man  who  was  described  to 
him  in  that  way  ? 

A  man  attempts  to  describe  to  me  the  woman  of  his 
love,  saying,  "  She  is  five  feet,  four  in  dies  high  ;  she 
has  brown  liair ;  she  has  eyes  —  two  of  them  ;  she  has  a 
nose  ;  she  has  a  mouth ;  she  has  ears ;  she  smells  with 
her  nose,  and  eats  with  her  mouth,  and  sees  with  her 
eyes,  and  hears  with  her  ears ;  she  has  feet,  and  she 


76  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

walks  on  them ;  she  has  hands,  and  she  uses  them  ;  she 
has  a  heart,  —  oh,  what  a  heart !  Do  you  wonder  that 
I  admire  her  ?  " 

How  vague  such  a  description  would  be  !  It  may  be 
a  very  superficial  analysis,  but  it  is  all  the  worse  if  you 
carry  it  out  a  great  M'ay  further ;  for  analysis  is  taking 
a  thing  apart ;  it  is  taking  it  out  of  organization  and 
personality  ;  and  if  you  cannot  produce  a  sense  of  per- 
sonality by  analyzing  a  human  being,  and  enumerat- 
ing his  different  parts,  do  not  think  that  by  partition- 
ing the  Divine  nature  for  the  purpose  of  making  God 
known  you  can  ]Droduce  a  sense  of  his  personality.  For 
to  say  to  me  that  God  is  wise,  and  just,  and  good,  does 
not  give  me  any  very  particular  idea  of  him. 

I  will  describe  to  you  two  men  who  are  as  different 
as  they  possibly  can  be,  —  General  Grant  and  General 
Sherman  ;  and  I  will  say  that  both  of  them  have  very 
great  fortitude,  that  both  of  them  have  very  great 
patience,  running  even  to  obstinacy ;  that  both  of  them 
have  very  sharp  and  clear  intellects  ;  that  both  of  them 
have  foresight ;  that  both  of  tliem  have  very  great  sym- 
patliy  with  their  fellow-men  ;  that  both  of  them  are 
very  skillful ;  and  that  both  of  them  are  apt  to  be  vic- 
torious. Those  terms  describe  them  both  generically, 
and  yet  they  are  as  different  as  it  is  possible  for  them 
to  be  in  other  respects.  General  Grant  is  square,  short, 
and  thick ;  and  General  Sherman  is  long,  lean,  and 
lathy.  General  Grant  is  very  taciturn  ;  and  General 
Sherman  is  never  silent,  —  I  suppose  he  talks  in  his 
sleep  !  General  Grant  thinks  everything  out,  and 
General  Sherman  sees  things  by  intuition.  General 
Grant  is  secretive,  and  General  Sherman  is  open  as  a 


THE   TRUE   METHOD    OF  PRESENTING   GOD.  77 

child.  You  must  go  further  than  the  gemis,  or  you  do 
not  describe  men. 

Herein  lies  one  of  the  great  mistakes  into  which 
preachers  fall.  They  do  not  produce  a  sense  of  the 
personality  of  God,  because  they  preach  analytic  views, 
j   analytic  views,  analytic  views,  of  God  all  the  time. 

Now,  when  you  have  indoctrinated  men,  by  analysis, 
in  the  character  of  God,  and  in  the  qualities  or  elements 
into  which  it  is  analyzed,  if  you  have  the  power,  by 
synthesis,  of  bringing  them  back  and  combining  them 
again,  that  is  all  very  well.  Or,  to  change  the  figure, 
if,  instead  of  forever  distributing  type,  you  distribute  it 
simply  because  you  wish  every  letter  to  be  in  its  proper 
department  in  order  that  it  may  be  easily  found  when 
it  is  wanted  for  new  combinations,  then  you  may  bring 
it  back,  by  composition,  and  spell  out  that  incompre- 
hensible Name  which  the  Jews  revered,  and  which  the 
Scriptures  disclosed.  For,  in  looking  at  God,  two  pro- 
cesses are  employed,  —  first,  that  of  separating  the  qual- 
ities of  his  nature,  so  that  each  shall  be  distinct  from 
every  other ;  and  secondly,  that  of  gathering  them  to- 
gether again,  and  forming  them  into  a  unit :  then  you 
have  a  Person  who  stands  out  by  himself,  and  who  can 
never  be  confounded  with  another  person. 

PERSONALITY   NOT   FUNCTIONAL   CONDITION. 

God's  personality,  too,  should  be  presented  as  dis- 
tinct from  his  functions  ;   for,  one  may  lose  entirely 
the   sense   of  the  Divine  personality,  by  turning  the 
.  mind,  or  having  it  turned  almost  continuously,  upon 
"Awhat  God  does,  or  what  God  says.     That  is,  if  you 
say  of  God  that  he  is  Creator,  that  he  is  Lawgiver, 


78  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

that  lie  is  Upholder,  that  he  is  Judge,  that  he  is  Pun- 
isher,  you  say  only  what  has  been  said,  and  said  fitly, 
of  Jupiter,  what  has  been  said  of  Brahma,  and  what 
may  be  properly  said  of  any  semi-civilized  deity.  Such 
deities  are  conceived  of  as  having  performed  various 
essential  functions ;  and  you  cannot  bring  Jehovah  dis- 
tinctly before  the  mind  in  that  way.  You  cannot  in 
that  way  produce  a  sense  of  the  difference  between 
Jove  and  Jehovah.  It  does  not  represent  a  person 
toward  whom  one  can  fulfill  the  command,  "  Thou  shalt 
love." 

No  man,  I  suppose,  ever  yet  fell  in  love  with  a 
problem.  Men  may  like  problems,  but  no  man  can 
love  them.  No  man  ever  yet  fell  in  love  with  a  propo- 
sition in  mental  philosophy ;  no  man  ever  fell  in  love 
with  an  abstraction ;  no  man  ever  fell  in  love  with  a 
I  conception  of  power ;  but  men  fall  in  love  with  dispo- 
'  sitions.  And  the  character  of  God  is  to  be  so  preached 
that  all  elements  of  w-isdom  and  of  power  will  stand 
around  his  great  central  disposition,  which  should  make 
him  something  admirable,  to  be  thought  of,  to  be  fol- 
lowed, and  to  be  obeyed.  With  such  a  presentation  of 
God  you  can  love,  but  without  it  you  cannot  love. 

"When  the  elements  of  the  Divine  nature  are  known 
and  are  brought  into  personality,  there  will  be  great 
power  in  preaching.  A  peculiarity  of  the  Bible  is,  that 
it  contains  these  elements  in  itself 

COMPLETE   CONCEPTION   OF   GOD    IMPOSSIBLE. 

I  had  occasion,  last  week,  to  call  your  attention  to 
that  character  of  God  which  is  presented  in  the  thirty- 
fourth  chapter  of  Exodus.     Another  description  of  God 


THE   TRUE   METHOD    OF   PEESENTING   GOD.  79 

is  given  in  the  Old  Testament,  which  I  think  is  ex- 
traordinary when  you  regard  the  time  in  which  it 
emerged,  namely,  the  description  wliich  God  gives  of 
himself.  In  one  place  he  says,  "  I  am  that  I  am " ; 
and  in  another  place,  "  I  am  he."  Abstraction  can  be 
carried  no  further  than  it  is  carried  in  these  passages ; 
and  it  seems  to  me  something  astounding,  far  back  in 
the  time  of  that  pictorial  people,  —  that  people  of  an 
old  Semitic  language,  in  which  everything  was  graphic 
and  dramatic,  —  to  see  these  declarations  of  God :  that 
he  transcends  knowledge,  and  that  he  exists  in  his  own 
absolutely  unapproachable  totality,  as  where  he  says, 
substantially,  "  I  am  myself ;  I  am  all  that  I  am ;  I 
am  because  I  am ;  look  upon  me,  indescribable  and 
wonderful  past  all  pronunciation." 

Continually  there  are  such  statements,  and  others, 
declaring  that  we  cannot  know  God  unto  perfection ; 
that  he  is,  in  every  respect,  so  large  and  so  good  that 
no  man  can  rise  to  a  conception  of  him.  This  is  de- 
clared, after  the  manifestation  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus, 
and  even  down  as  late  as  the  time  of  Paul,  who  says 
that  we  can  only  see  God  as  through  a  glass,  darkly. 
We  have  tlie  declaration  in  the  first  Epistle  of  John, 
"  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not 
yet  appear  what  we  shall  be."  In  other  words,  the 
declaration  is,  "We  are  allied  to  him  as  sons,"  and 
yet  we  have  very  little  intimation  of  what  it  is  to 
have  such  a  Father.  The  largeness  of  it,  the  fullness 
of  it,  and  the  grandeur  of  it,  transcend  our  compre- 
hension. 

Bring  me  out  of  the  Music  Hall  in  Boston,  one  by 
one,  the  magnificent  array  of  stops  in  that  great  organ. 


80  LECTURES    ON   PEEACHING. 

and  lay  them  on  the  trial-board,  and  let  a  man  blow 
every  one  of  them,  first  sounding  the  wald-flute,  next 
the  diapason,  and  then  the  others  in  their  order,  and  I 
can  form  some  imagination  of  what  the  effect  would  be 
if  they  were  all  put  together  and  sounded,  —  especially 
if  I  had  heard  other  organs ;  and  yet,  when  I  go  at  twi- 
light in  the  evening,  where  some  John  Zundel,  who 
thinks  with  his  hands,  whose  brains  run  down  to  the 
ends  of  his  fingers,  and  who  is  pouring  out,  for  his  own 
comfort  and  enjoyment,  devotional  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings through  the  tones  of  that  grand  instrument,  with 
all  its  combined  power  and  richness,  then  I  say,  in  my 
amazement,  "  Fool !  fool !  that  I  should  have  supposed 
that  I  had  ever  heard  this  organ  ! "  I  had  heard  every 
one  of  its  stops,  and  had  some  conception  of  what  it 
would  be  to  hear  them  after  they  were  put  together ; 
but  when  I  heard  them  after  they  were  put  together,  I 
found  that  the  conception  which  I  had  was  entirely  in- 
adequate. 

"When  I  go  up  to  heaven,  —  if  it  please  God  to  give 
me  admission  to  his  presence,  —  I  shall  know  what 
love  is.  I  do  know  what  love  is  ;  for  is  there  no  love 
on  earth  ?  I  know  what  justice  is  ;  is  there  no  justice 
on  earth  ?  I  know  what  generosity  is  ;  is  there  no  gen- 
erosity on  earth  ?  But  when  I  stand  in  Zion,  and  be- 
fore God,  and  see  what  infinite  justice,  infinite  generos- 
ity, and  infinite  love  are,  —  when  I  see  that  they  have 
no  bounds,  no  latitude  nor  longitude,  and  that  tliey 
have  endless  diversities  and  combinations,  —  then  there 
will  rise  upon  my  thought  a  conception  of  God's  maj- 
esty and  riches  and  power  and  grandeur,  such  that  I 
shall  say,  "  I  have  heard  of  thee  by  the  hearing  of  the 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  PRESENTING  GOD.     81 

ear,  but  now  mine  eye  seeth  thee";  but  I  shall  not  say, 
"  I  repent  in  dust  and  ashes  "  ;  for  I  shall  be  lifted  up 
by  the  hand  of  God's  love,  I  shall  be  called  his  own, 
and  I  shall  be  able  to  look  him  in  the  face,  and  stand 
as  his  redeemed  child,  spirit  to  spirit.  I  do  know  much 
of  God ;  and  yet,  comparatively  speaking,  I  know  noth- 
ing of  him.  I  do  understand  God,  and  yet  he  passes 
understanding. 

So  you  shall  find  other  passages  which  go  to  show 
that  God  was  revealed  to  men  personally  in  those 
old  times ;  but  I  cannot  see  how  such  conceptions  of 
him  as  then  existed  came  into  their  minds  in  any  other 
way  except  by  the  infusion  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  By 
searching  we  cannot  find  out  God ;  but  we  can  find 
out  much  about  him,  —  enough  to  give  us  something  to 
worship  and  to  love. 

RICHNESS    OF   THE   BIBLE   METHOD. 

See  how  the  Bible  represents  God,  in  order  to  convey 
an  idea  of  his  personality.  See  how  he  is  brought 
down  to  our  conditions.  See  how  he  walks  and  rides. 
See  how  all  things  in  nature  are  made  to  speak  of  him. 
See  how  he  produces  on  the  minds  of  children  —  Old 
Testament  men  —  a  sense  of  his  personality. 

Let  any  man  read  the  Book  of  Isaiah  and  say,  if  he 
can,  that  there  has  not  risen  on  his  imagination  a 
most  magnificent  conception  of  a  personal  God,  which 
has  more  than  any  abstraction  or  any  metaphysical 
creation.  There  rises  a  majestic  figure  before  the 
minds  of  those  who  read  that  book,  which  fills  them 
with  a  conception  of  One  whom  they  can  adore. 

Sometimes  men  say  that  the  Old  Testament  is  worn 

4  *  B" 


82  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

out.  When  the  heavens  are  -worn  out  and  men  no 
more  need  to  understand  God,  then  the  Old  Testa- 
ment may  be  worn  out,  but  not  until  then.  I  hardly 
hesitate  to  say  that  you  could  not  understand  the  New 
Testament  if  it  were  not  for  the  great  and  grand 
background  upon  which  God  stands  unfolded.  The 
Old  Testament  is  wonderfully  adapted  to  the  wants  of 
the  mind  in  childhood  and  in  the  savage  state,  and  to 
the  preparation  of  the  mind,  all  through  the  different 
stages  of  civilization,  for  the  higher  condition  of  human 
culture.  There  is  nothing  like  it.  And  it  is  a  marvel 
to  me,  being,  as  it  is,  the  work,  not  of  one  painter 
but  of  many,  and  the  illustrations  being  wrought 
out  by  one  and  another  and  another,  all  working  to- 
gether without  jar  or  discord,  and  the  result  being  a 
representation  of  a  God  so  personal  that  when  he  is 
said  to  perform  any  function  it  is  a  Person  that  is  con- 
ceived of  as  performing  that  function,  and  the  sense 
of  personality,  made  up  of  the  various  Divine  attri- 
butes, being  larger  and  more  influential  than  those 
same  attributes  taken  separately. 

The  fault  of  men  in  preaching  God  is  in  not  produ- 
cing in  their  hearers  a  sense  of  his  personality,  although 
in  the  Bible  the  representation  of  that  personality  is 
such  that,  relatively,  all  other  representations  fall  into 
insignificance  in  the  comparison. 

LEANNESS   OF   nilLOSOPHICAL   METHODS. 

Let  any  man  take  the  Old  Testament,  and  compare 
it  with  the  efforts  which  have  been  made  to  represent 
God  by  any  other  method  than  this.  I  will  not  com- 
pare it  with  the  efforts  of  pantheists,  —  for  I  will  not 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  PRESENTING  GOD.     83 

argue  with  mists ;  biit  let  any  man  compare  it  with 
the  efforts  which  have  been  made  by  Mansel.  I  do  not 
know  whether  you  have  read  his  lectures.  They  are 
admirable  ;  but  in  reading  them  I  could  not  help  feel- 
ing how  w^eak  they  came  out.  It  is  pitiful  to  see  how 
faint  and  feeble  is  the  result  of  the  efforts  of  a  Chris- 
tian philosopher,  who  meant  to  do  well,  in  developing 
the  unknowable. 

I  could  not  preach  any  such  God  as  he  and  others 
portray.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  pitched  into 
the  ministry  headlong,  without  anything  to  do  but  to 
make  men  better,  —  for  really  my  stock  of  theology  that 
I  believed  in  was  very  small.  I  have  increased  it  very 
much  since,  but  it  was  meager  enough  then ;  and  my 
business  was  to  do  what  I  could  for  men,  and  let  the- 
ology take  care  of  itself  I  had  nothing  but  the  Bible 
to  go  to ;  and  I  remember  times  of  deep  water,  when 
I  took  what  I  could  get  out  of  the  Bible  to  help 
people  with ;  and  as  I  went  out  to  help  them,  I  felt 
something  that  demanded  an  idea  of  God ;  and  I 
fell  back  on  the  Old  Testament,  as  well  as  on  the 
Xew,  for  my  conceptions  of  him.  In  my  early  minis- 
try I  studied  to  preach  God  so  as  to  touch  the  imagi- 
nation, the  reason,  and  the  affections  of  men ;  and  I 
learned  to  have  great  respect  for  that  element  in  preach- 
hing  which  develops  steadily  and  continuously  the  attri- 
butes of  the  Divine  Being  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
men  an  idea  of  a  Person  that  they  could  love  as  well 
as  fear. 

ISTow,  when  I  look  at  writers  and  scholarly  men,  and 
see  how  they  have  patched  up  their  ideas  of  the  un- 
knowable, and  how  they  have  analyzed  God,  I  feel  that 


84  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

if  I  had  to  preach  those  things  in  the  pulpit  I  would 
throw  sermon  and  book  under  the  desk,  and  would  never 
touch  them  again. 

Look  at  Herbert  Spencer's  God.  I  do  not  revile 
Herbert  Spencer ;  many  of  the  stones  that  will  shine 
out  by  and  by  in  the  completed  temple  of  God  will 
have  come  from  his  hands ;  but  I  think  his  writings 
should  be  taken  as  the  disciples  took  the  wheat,  which 
they  ate,  riibhing  it  in  their  lia7ids.  In  taking  his  phi- 
losophy you  have  to  take  a  great  deal  of  straw  and 
chaff,  as  well  as  much  wheat.  As  to  his  presentation 
of  God,  it  is  nothing.  It  is  exactly  what  the  annual 
joke  of  our  Professor  Snell,  in  Amherst  College,  was, 
when  he  said,  "  Gentlemen,  you  will  perceive  this  in- 
visible ball !  " 

And  yet,  testing  such  men  and  their  reasonings,  it  will 
be  found  that  they  are  like  the  Hirams  that  Solomon 
employed,  who  wrought  in  marble,  and  brass,  and  silver, 
and  gold,  and  ivory.  They  are  working,  each  in  his 
own  way,  on  that  building  of  God  which  is  being  car- 
ried up  through  the  ages.  If  you  look  at  that  which 
any  one  of  them  is  doing  by  himself,  it  seems  like  poor- 
ness, indeed ;  but  if  you  take  a  comprehensive  view  of 
that  which  they  are  all  doing,  you  will  be  surprised  at 
the  richness  of  it. 

SEARCH   THE   SCRIPTURES. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  that  will  fill   your  soul  like 

the  representations  of  God   in  the  Old  Testament  and 

/  in  the  New;   and  do  not  separate  the  Old   from   the 

New  when  you  are  studying  the  character  of  God.    You 

cannot   eret   along  without   them   both.      Your  Christ 


THE   fRUE   METHOD    OF   PRESENTING   GOD. 


85 


cannot  at  any  other  time  be  such  a  Christ,  nor  such 
a  representation  of  God,  as  when  you  see  the  person  of 
Jehovah  as  he  is  described  in  the  Old  Testament. 

In  preaching  God,  assume  the  truth  of  his  existence ; 
and  preach  so  that  your  people  shall  see  that  he  is  a 
living  Person,  with  whom  they  can  hold  commerce. 


U^ 


■*-.^^ 


ii&- 


IV. 


CONCEPTION'S   OF  THE  DIVINITY. 

February  19,  1874. 
PEEACHING   OF   GOD,  A   SOUKCE   OF   POWER. 

SPOKE  to  you  yesterday,  young  gentle- 
men, upon  your  office  as  presenting  to  the 
minds  of  congregations  the  true  idea  of 
God.  As  that  was  said  in  Scripture  to  be 
the  center  of  all  truth,  the  starting-point  and  end, 
also,  of  revelation  itself,  so  it  must  be  the  very  center, 
and  also  the  cii-cumference,  of  your  ministerial  work ; 
and  a  right  presentation  of  the  Divine  character  will 
fill  your  hands  with  power.  Without  that  you  may 
not  lack  power,  but  you  will  have  it  only  in  the  lower 
ranges.  I  say  this,  not  theoretically,  but  out  of  my 
own  experience.  I  came  to  the  knowledge  of  God 
stumblingly  and  gi'adually  ;  but  of  nothing  am  I  more 
sure  now. 

When  I  discourse  for  a  length  of  time,  analyzing 
people's  characters,  criticising  various  lines  of  their 
conduct,  and  setting  forth  the  motives  and  the  fruit  of 
right  or  wrong  doing  in  any  direction,  but  still  dealing 
with  human  nature  in  human  conditions,  at  the  first 
the  congregation  listen  with  keen  interest  and  doubtless 


CONCEPTIONS    OF   THE   DIVINITY.  87 

with  some  profit;  but  after  a  little  time  the  interest 
falls  off.  And  this  is  because  the  themes  discussed  do 
not  rise  very  much  above  the  lines  of  life  which  measure 
men's  lower  growth,  and  deal  with  what  may  be  called 
tlie  inferior  natural  laws.  But  when  from  that  level 
I  have  been  drawn  to  go  to  those  themes  which  involve 
considerations  of  the  Infinite,  of  the  Eternal,  of  God  in 
all  the  elements  which  belong  to  the  Divine  idea,  I 
have  found  a  decided  difference  of  atmosphere,  a  marked 
difference  of  power ;  and  not  only  that,  but  there  is  a 
lasting  quality,  that  inheres  in  discourses  which  deal 
largely  with  these  supereminent  topics. 

MEANING   OF   PEESONALITY. 

I  said  to  you  yesterday  afternoon  that  there  were 
three  things  which  must  be  considered  in  order  to 
rightly  instruct  your  parishioners,  namely,  the  person- 
ality of  God,  the  Divine  disposition  or  character,  and 
the  sense  of  the  ever-presence  of  God  with  men ;  and 
I  discussed,  somewhat  at  length,  the  first  of  these  ele- 
ments, —  God's  personality.  I  was  asked  at  the  close 
of  the  lecture  what  I  meant  by  personality.  I  said  I 
would  answer  that  question  to-day.  I  do  not  purpose 
to  give  a  definition  of  it  in  its  philosophically  disputed 
or  discussed  sense. 

What  I  mean  by  personality  is  a  being,  separate  from 
the  effects  which  he  produces  ;  a  being,  intelligent,  with 
moral  attributes,  —  with  will  and  purpose  in  and  of  him- 
self;  in  the  case  of  God,  a  Being  who  centrally  stands 
related  to  the  universe  in  the  same  way  in  which  men 
stand  related  to  the  physical  and  social  world  which 
suiTounds  them  here.    A  man  is  a  person  in  distinction 


88  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

from  a  tree,  a  cliff,  a  house,  a  stone,  or  anytMng  of  that 
kind,  in  this,  that  he  is  filled  with  emotive  life,  with  will, 
and  with  moral  purpose.  But  he  is  also  distinct  from 
other  men,  in  that  he  has  an  individual  organization ; 
that  he  has  his  own  separateness  from  other  organiza- 
tions. And  what  I  mean  by  the  Divine  personality  is, 
that  it  is  a  Being  who  thinks,  feels,  wills,  and  governs, 
not  in  the  sense  in  which  nature  does,  but  in  the  sense 
in  which  a  voluntary  sentient  creature  does,  —  in  a 
higher  sense,  too,  but  in  the  same  general  sense. 

THE   HEIGHT   AND   THE   HUMILITY   OF   GOD. 

Now,  in  attempting  to  construct,  or  rather  in  at- 
tempting to  infuse  steadily  into  the  minds  of  your 
hearers,  the  true  idea  of  God,  make  it  real  to  them  by 
bringing  it  down  to  their  understanding.  And  you  are 
to  remember  two  things,  both  of  which  are  Scriptural : 
First,  that  the  Scripture  lifts  up  a  conception  of  God, 
and  carries  it  high.  There  is  in  the  Scriptures  most 
distinctly  a  metaphysical  element,  if  you  choose  to  call 
it  so,  —  a  philosophical  element  at  any  rate ;  and  the 
ideal  is  exceedingly  high  and  is  clothed  with  every 
attribute  of  power  and  grandeur  and  beauty  and  glory. 
Secondly,  when  you  have  carried  up  the  conception  of 
God  in  this  way,  you  must  counteract  it  by  precisely  the 
opposite  tendency,  or  else  you  will  lift  God  out  of  the 
reach  of  men's  vision,  and  out  of  the  sphere  of  human 
sympathy ;  and,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  you  will 
remove  the  idea  of  him  from  men's  view. 

You  will  find,  I  think,  in  the  history  of  the  revela- 
tion of  God,  that  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures, 
both  early  and  late,  there  were  two  streams  of  repre- 


CONCEPTIONS   OF   THE   DIVINITY.  89 

sentation,  one  of  wliicli  was  all  the  time  exalting  God, 
and  the  other  all  the  time  bringing  him  back  to  men 
from  out  of  that  exaltation ;  showing  that  this  Being 
of  grandeur  was  nevertheless  in  intimate  personal  rela- 
tions with  men,  and  that  in  some  sense  he  humbled 
himself,  in  order  to  be  represented  by  the  homeliest 
and  commonest  of  things,  so  that  while  men  had  an 
idea  of  perfect  wisdom,  perfect  integrity,  perfect  purity, 
or  holiness,  or  righteousness,  whichever  you  may  choose 
to  call  it,  while  they  felt  that  he  was  from  eternity  to 
eternity,  and  wliile  the  ideal  circle  was  swept  with  the 
most  magnificent  conceptions  of  spiritual  and  moral 
power,  at  the  same  time  all  that  grandeur  kissed  men, 
caressed  them,  nursed  them,  thought  for  them,  felt  for 
them,  wept  for  them,  and  laid  itself  down  for  them. 

Those  two  processes  are  carried  along  very  nearly 
together  in  the  Old  Testament ;  and  they  must  be  kept 
in  mind  by  you,  if  you  are  to  be  able  ministers.  You 
must  not  carry  up  the  idea  of  God  so  as  to  have  it 
evaporate.  Do  not  make  God  so  holy,  or  holy  with 
such  a  conception,  that  he  shall  be  separated  from 
men.  There  must  be  a  perpetual  re-incarnation  of  the 
divine  thought. 

HCMAN   ELEMENTS   TO   EEPEESENT  THE   DIVINE. 

Here  comes  in  the  great  principle  of  anthropomor- 
phism, —  if  you  will  excuse  the  length  of  the  word, 
which  I  did  not  make.  There  has  been  very  much  said 
against  the  employment  of  anthropomorphism,  —  the 
representation  of  God  in  human  forms,  or  by  human 
conditions ;  it  is  a  principle  which  has  been  very  much 
contested  ;  and  yet  I  affi.rm  that  without  it  there  is  no 


90  LECTUKES   ON   PREACHING. 

such  thing  as  making  God  known  to  men.  It  under- 
lies all  the  Scriptures,  Old  and  New,  —  the  teachino-  in 
respect  to  God ;  and  just  as  soon  as  you  attempt  to 
represent  the  Divine  nature  in  any  other  way,  you  go 
off  into  mysticism,  into  vague  generalities  that  have 
no  power  in  them,  and  that  are  like  clouds  which  the 
wind  makes,  without  rain.  You  will  be  obliged  to 
represent  God  by  tlie  things  which  you  know  in  your- 
self, or  in  your  surroundings. 

It  becomes  very  important  that  you  should  know 
how  to  use  this  principle  ;  because,  while  a  thing  may 
be  right  in  its  theory,  it  may  be  in  its  practice  badly 
applied  and  most  mischievous.  It  was  this  principle 
that  led  Jo  the  formation  of  the  deities  of  nations  that 
were  unillumined  by  a  heavenly  inspired  record.  They 
took  the  things  which  they  knew  most  about,  —  pa- 
tience, courage,  endurance,  heroism,  glory,  —  and  framed 
them  into  a  person,  and  called  this,  for  instance,  Her- 
cules, their  god.  They  made  a  poor  god,  but  they  used 
the  right  principle  in  making  him  ;  that  is  to  say,  they 
did-  the  best  that  they  could.  They  exalted  into  an 
infinite  sphere,  and  into  supreme  power,  those  parts  of 
human  nature  which  they  thought  the  most  of  And 
when  afterwards  there  were  other  parts  of  civilization 
developed,  and  these  were  clustered  about  the  Divine 
idea,  the  same  principle  was  carried  on. 

They  had  a  poor  god,  not  because  anthropomorphism 
is  wrong,  but  because  they  took  the  lowest  parts  of 
men,  —  those  parts  which  had  been  developed,  —  and 
made  their  god  out  of  these.  They  made  him  of  base 
materials,  taking  human  passions  and  fleshly  conditions, 
and  transferring  them  to  some  mountain-top,  and  mak- 


CONCEPTIONS   OF   THE   DIVINITY.  91 

ing  them  regnant  over  all  the  earth.  But  if  they  could 
have  taken  the  thought  of  the  spirit  of  God  as  it  has 
been  developed  in  patriarchs,  in  prophets,  in  disciples, 
in  martyrs,  in  holy  men  of  old  and  in  later  days ;  if 
they  had  known  how  to  cull  and  sift  out  the  higher 
elements  of  manhood,  and  how  to  combine  them  around 
some  appropriate  center,  —  they  would  have  proceeded 
in  the  true  direction  of  constructing  in  the  human  mind 
an  idea  of  God. 

HUMAN   SYMBOLISM   OF   GOD. 

We  are  to  recollect  that  all  we  can  do  is  to -obtain 
what  may  be  called  a  symbol,  —  something  which  shall 
bring  God  to  our  imagination  and  our  thought.  No 
man  can  see  the  whole  of  the  Divine  nature  ;  no  man 
can  represent  all  of  it ;  no  man  can,  by  any  process 
either  within  or  without  himself,  do  more  than  to  make 
that  which  shall  resemble  God,  as  an  idea  is  resembled 
by  letters,  which  have  the  power  of  making  the  thing 
itself  spring  up  in  the  man  when  he  sees  the  word 
which  they  compose.  The  letters  1-o-v-e  and  h-a-t-e, 
alpliabetically,  separated,  detached,  have  no  power  nor 
significance;  but  if  they  are  combined  to  form  the 
words  love  and  hate,  when  they  strike  the  eye  one  flame 
of  thought  and  feeling  bursts  out  on  one  side,  and 
another  and  different  flame  of  thought  and  feeling  on 
another  side.  Being  brought  together  thus,  they  have 
the  power  of  symbols,  and  convey  ideas  to  our  minds. 

So,  though  men  may  readily  construct  the  Divine 
idea,  they  must  construct  it  of  things  which  are  in  the 
nature  of  symbols,  and  which  only  approach  the  real- 
ity.   And  this  Divine  idea  will  differ  in  magnitude  and 


92  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

purity  according  to  the  character  of  the  elements  which 
are  employed  in  its  construction,  according  to  their 
combinations,  and  according  to  the  additions  that  are 
made  to  them  from  time  to  time. 

I  am  sure  that  all  there  is  of  God  is  not  simply  that 
which  can  come  through  the  eye-gate,  through  the  ear- 
gate,  through  any  one  part,  or  througli  all  the  parts,  of 
the  human  structure.  I  believe  that,  while  we  have 
much  thought  of  God  which  can  be  comprehended  by 
the  human  mind,  there  is  much  more  which  the  human 
mind  cannot  comprehend.  I  believe  that  there  are 
"thrones,  and  principalities,  and  powers,"  which  we 
shall  understand  when  we  come  to  our  higher  develop- 
ment, but  which  are  hidden  from  us  now ;  just  as  there 
is  that  in  a  father  which  the  child  does  not  understand, 
but  which  he  grows  up  to  a  knowledge  of,  little  by 
little.  Yet,  so  far  as  the  child  does  understand  the 
father,  his  understanding  of  him  is  real  and  is  right,  — 
only  the  father  is  much  more  and  far  better  than  the 
child  thinks  or  can  appreciate. 

INVISIBLE   LIGHT. 

I  was  powerfully  struck,  my  breath  was  almost  taken 
away,  by  the  inspiration  of  thought  which  came  to  my 
mind  when  Professor  Tyndall  showed  that,  aside  from 
the  beams  of  light  that  were  visible,  and  which  we  had 
recognized  as  belonging  to  light,  there  were  also  other 
parts  of  light  whicli  we  never  had  recognized,  and 
which  we  had  no  sense  to  detect,  —  when  he  showed 
that  there  were  qualities  of  light  which  man  was  with- 
out any  faculty  directly  to  appreciate,  and  the  existence 
of  which  he  could  only  know  from  the  fact  that  when 


CONCEPTIONS   OF   THE   DIVINITY.  93 

it  passed  tlirougli  the  prism  and  showed  the  spectnim 
there  was  chemical  effect  produced  beyond  the  visible 
spectrum,  which  indicated  the  existence  of  elements 
there  that  could  not  be  detected  by  the  sight. 

We  had  investigated  this  subject,  and  we  thought 
we  knew  what  was  the  composition  of  light ;  but  here 
■was  this  additional  truth  developed  on  one  side,  and 
very  likely  there  will  be  other  truths  developed  on 
other  sides.  Undoubtedly  there  will  be  truths  of  light 
and  of  other  elements  discovered  wdiich  we  have  not 
yet  comprehended. 

Now,  if  this  be  so  in  the  material  realm,  how  much 
more  true  must  it  be  in  the  spiritual !  How  easily 
may  we  suppose  tliat  there  are  elements  of  truth  re- 
specting the  existence  of  God  Almighty,  respecting 
his  character  and  his  w^ays,  which  w^e  do  not  see  ! 
Although  there  is  much  that  belongs  to  his  nature 
that  we  can  see  dimly,  yet  there  is  something  more, 
and  something  brighter  than  all  that,  which  we  do  not 
see,  but  which  we  shall  see  by  and  by. 

AYhen  I  am  asked,  "  How  shall  we  use  the  idea  of 
God  which  we  have  constructed  so  as  to  affect  differ- 
ent persons  in  different  experiences  ? "  I  reply  that 
we  must,  having  by  reason  and  imagination  prepared 
the  materials  for  the  Divine  idea,  separate  them  from 
that  which  arises  from  man's  weakness  and  imper- 
fection, so  that  the  development  of  that  idea  will  go 
with  the  development  of  the  man  himself 

"  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart  :  for  they  shall  see  God." 

No  man  sees  more  of  God  than  he  has  in  himself 
There  must  be  in  him  those  elements  through  which 


94  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

he    comes    to    a    knowledge    or    experience    of    the 
Divine. 

THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   SYMBOLISM, 

I  purpose  now  to  show  you  how,  using  this  method 
in  a  much  larger  sj)here,  the  Old  Testament  teachers 
did  produce  in  the  minds  of  the  Hebrew  people  a  con- 
ception of  God. 

First,  as  I  have  said,  there  was  the  grand  Ideal,  the 
metaphysical  Spirit,  the  Cause,  the  Sovereignty ;  but 
what  sort  of  a  Being  was  this  Ruler  who  was  lifted  up 
above  time  and  chance,  and  all  counsel,  and  help  of 
every  kind  ?  Take  notice  how  this  idea  of  God  was 
constructed  in  men  so  that  he  should  be  brought  very 
near  to  them.  In  the  first  place,  names  and  illustra- 
tions from  every  side  of  human  knowledge  were  gath- 
ered together,  showing  how  to  reach  men's  consciences, 
and  showing  likewise  that  all  creation  was  needed  in 
order,  by  the  help  of  its  many  particulars,  to  work  out 
a  conception,  faint  though  it  would  be,  of  that  which 
really  was  infinite. 

First  come  the  things  which  are  known  by  our 
senses.  Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  to  go  through  the 
Old  Testament,  and  see  how  much  use  is  made  there, 
in  describing  God,  or  the  Divine  operations,  of  the 
seasons,  of  storms,  of  clouds,  of  the  wind,  of  the  sea, 
of  mountains  and  their  caverns,  of  grass,  of  things  that 
belong  to  summer  and  winter,  of  things  that  are  organic 
and  that  grow,  or  of  things  that  are  inorganic  and  un- 
growing  ?  All  these  things  were  employed  abundantly, 
and  each  one,  if  I  may  so  say,  with  an  exquisite  adap- 
tation that  is  very  remarkable. 


CONCEPTIONS   OF  THE  DIVINITY.  95 

For  instance,  God  is  described  as  being  a  "  Eock  " ; 
and,  at  once,  in  your  thought,  he  is  a  Defence ;  and 
firmness,  hardness,  and  inexpugnableness  are  the  qual- 
ities which  you  associate  with  him.  But  a  rock  is 
something  more  than  a  defence.  We  have  the  expres- 
sion, "  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land." 
Ah  !  then,  it  is  not  any  longer  that  God  is  merely 
strong  and  enduring ;  there  is  an  element  of  protec- 
tion, of  helpfulness,  in  his  strength,  which  throws  its 
shadow  upon  men. 

What  are  clouds  to  you  ?  To  me  they  are  babies' 
baskets  ;  they  are  flocks  of  sheep ;  they  are  caravans 
going  through  the  desert  air ;  to  me  they  are  vast  cities 
and  battlements,  as  they  stand  piled  up  along  the  hori- 
zon. Clouds  are  what  to  you  ?  Signs  of  rain,  — 
weather-gauges,  perhaps  ;  they  are  this,  that,  or  the 
other,  according  to  the  cast  of  his  mind  who  observes 
them.  Wlmt  were  they  to  the  Hebrew  ?  God's  chariots. 
They  had  a  meaning,  when  he  looked  upon  them, 
which  took  him  right  back  to  God. 

What  is  a  storm  to  you  ?  An  equatorial  current, 
drifting  northward,  —  the  compensation  of  some  other 
current  going  southward.  "Wlmt  is  it  to  your  neigh- 
bor ?  The  result  of  some  condition  of  the  atmosphere, 
in  which  moisture  and  cold  meet.  What  were  storms 
to  the  old  Hebrew  ?  What  were  thunder  and  light- 
ning ?  AVhat  were  the  convulsions  of  nature  ?  They 
were  the  stepping  forth  of  God's  feet,  which  shook  the 
earth.  The  lightning  was  the  flash  of  his  eye.  The 
thunder  was  his  voice  as  he  spoke  to  men.  Eivers, 
mountains,  trees,  told  of  the  presence  of  the  Lord  in 
the  whole  earth.     To  the  Hebrew,  matter,  organic  or 


96  LECTUEES   ON  PREACHING. 

inorganic,  was  the  element  from  which  attributes  were 
derived  that,  by  transfer,  came  to  be  associated  with 
the  Divine  nature. 

Living  animals  were  emj^loyed  in  the  same  way. 
God  is  called  a  Lion,  an  Eagle,  and  a  Dove.  He  is 
spoken  of,  by  way  of  symbolization,  as  an  Ox  and 
as  a  Serpent.  So  you  will  find  that  the  whole  do- 
mestic economy,  in  relation  to  the  animal  kingdom, 
was  brought,  in  one  way  and  another,  to  bring  cer- 
tain suggestions,  and  to  make  certain  contributions,  to 
the  growing  conception  of  the  invisible  God. 

The  processes  of  industry  were  employed  in  like 
manner.  God  was  a  Husbandman  to  the  minds  of  the 
Jews.  It  would  be  considered  very  irreverent  if  men 
were  to  i)oint  to  heaven  and  speak  of  "  that  Farmer  up 
there  " ;  and  yet  the  old  Jews  spoke  of  God  as  a  Hus- 
bandman. He  was  a  Vine- dresser ;  he  was  a  Gardener; 
he  was  a  Vintner ;  he  was  a  Shepherd,  who  went  out 
with  flocks.  These  things  were  alphabetic,  as  it  were, 
and  spelled  out  the  Jewish  conception  of  God. 

The  same  is  true  in  the  category  of  public  officers. 
God  is  King  ;  he  is  Judge  ;  he  is  Captain  ;  he  is  Euler ; 
he  is  Governor  of  the  universe ;  and  these  titles  are  not 
unmeaning  or  accidental :  they  are  transferred  from 
ideas  that  have  been  elaborated  from  the  experience 
and  observation  of  men,  and  that  have  been  used  to- 
wards filling  up  the  great  metaphysical  circle  in  which 
there  are  infinite  steps,  and  which  has  infinite  contain- 
ing power.  Each  man  is  all  the  time  making  himself 
familiar  -with,  some  conception  of  God,  by  ascribing  to 
liim  qualities  wrouglit  out  by  his  own  earthly  ex- 
perience. 


CONCEPTIONS   OF  THE   DIVINITY.  97 


LIMITATION  OF   SYMBOLS. 

I  may  say  here,  in  passing,  what  I  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  say  more  at  large  by  and  by,  that  in  regard 
to  much  of  what  goes  into  the  theory  of  the  Divine 
law,  the  transfer  has  been  unwisely  made.  It  has  been 
urged  that  God,  being  a  Lawgiver,  must  do  so  and  so ; 
but  it  would  be  unfair  to  hold  him  responsible  for 
everything  that  belongs  to  objects  to  wliich  he  is 
likened.  For  instance,  it  would  be  unfair  to  impute  to 
him  all  the  qualities  which  are  in  the  lion.  Lion 
means  strength,  it  means  courage,  it  means  irresistible 
impetus ;  and  these  qualities  are  worthy  to  be  carried 
up  and  ascribed  to  God  ;  but  all  the  rest  of  the  lion  had 
better  be  omitted  from  the  elements  which  are  em- 
ployed for  symbolizing  God. 

Ox  means  enduring  strength ;  and  in  that  sense  it 
would  be  appropriate  to  use  it  as  signifying  continuity 
of  the  Divine  will  in  natural  law ;  but  beefsteaks  for 
food,  ox-hide  for  shoes,  and  a  swinging  tail  to  keep  flies 
off,  would  not  be  appropriate  things  with  which  to 
represent  the  attributes  of  God.  We  do  not  want  the 
lower  uses  of  those  symbols  wliich  are  derived  from 
nature.  There  is  a  spinal  cord  running  through  them, 
there  is  a  cerebral  spot  in  them ;  and  that  is  the  only 
part  which  you  are  to  take.  In  eating  oysters  you  take 
the  meat,  but  not  the  slieU.  In  printing,  it  is  just  the 
face  of  the  type  that  is  wanted  to  show  the  character 
of  the  impression.  And  there  are  given  qualities,  par- 
ticular elements,  certain  relations  of  natural  objects, 
wdiich  add  to  the  conception  of  the  Divine  nature  that 
is  formed  in  men's  minds ;  and  these  are  to  be  pre- 

A'OL.    111.  5  G 


98  LECTUEES   ON  PEEACHING. 

served ;  but  the  inferior  parts  are  to  be  shredded  off. 
You  are  to  take  the  various  symbols  of  God  which  you 
find  in  the  Bible  and  elsewhere,  and  treat  them  as  you 
do  a  banana  when  you  eat  it,  taking  off  the  skin ;  or  as 
you  do  an  apple,  throwing  away  the  peel. 

SOCIAL    SYMBOLS. 

In  the  relations  of  man  to  man,  we  find  that  which 
enables  us  to  conceive  of  God  as  father.  There  is  no- 
body who  does  not  know  what  fatherhood  means  ;  nor 
is  there  anything  nobler  than  the  idea  which  we  derive 
from  it ;  but  you  will  mark  how  almost  never  in  the 
Old  Testament  is  brought  in  that  other  word  which  is 
sweeter,  even,  than  the  name  of  father.  This  fact 
indicates  the  difference  between  the  present  and  four 
thousand  years  ago.  If  men  had  thought  of  mother  as 
we  do  now,  if  the  usages  of  society  had  given  her  the 
relative  position  which  she  has  to-day,  then  we  should 
have  had  something  of  motherhood  as  well  as  some- 
thing of  fatherhood  transferred  to  the  conception  or 
building  up  of  the  Divine  nature.  I  think  it  was  the 
want  of  that  element  which  created  the  Virgin  ]\Iary, 
and  led  men  to  attempt  to  bring  out  somewhere  a  sub- 
stitute for  it. 

God  is  a  Protector  to  the  widow,  to  the  orphan,  to 
the  weak ;  he  is  a  Shelter  to  the  exposed  ;  he  is  a  De- 
liverer to  the  captive ;  he  is  a  Guide  to  the  lost ;  he  is 
a  Comforter  to  those  who  mourn  ;  he  is  a  Physician  to 
those  who  are  sick.  Tliese  are  all  relationships  drawn 
from  the  social  conditions  of  man.  When  refined  and 
sanctified,  and  carried  up  to  the  Divine,  each  makes  one 
more  letter  in  the  spelling  out  of  the  incommunicable 
name  of  God. 


CONCEPTIONS   OF   THE   DIVINITY.  99 

Domestic  relations  ;  relations  of  the  household  ;  rela- 
tions of  husband  and  wife,  of  parents  and  children,  and 
of  brothers  and  sisters,  —  these  are  all  a  part  of  the 
primitive  elements  in  this  grand  transfer  from  earth  to 
God,  of  the  qualities,  that  are  wrought  out  by  Imman 
experience. 

WHY  THESE    ELEMENTS   HAVE  BEEN  USED. 

All  matter,  then,  all  mind,  all  relationships  in  society, 
all  growths  of  nature,  all  development  of  civilization, 
all  business,  all  government,  all  outworkings  of  affec- 
tion, —  these  things  have  been  prepared  and  raised  to 
the  higher  sphere,  as  interpreters  of  qualities  that  work 
more  and  more  by  development  in  the  Divine  nature. 

To  say  that  God  is  infinitely  holy,  infinitely  right- 
eous, is  to  say  a  thing  which  to  us  is  far  grander  than 
it  could  have  been  at  the  beginning  of  the  world.  We 
know  what  holiness  is  ;  but  what  was  holiness  to  them  ? 
What  could  they  know  of  holiness,  who  bought  their 
wives  and  sold  their  children  ?  Where  men  made  no 
distinction  between  living  beings  and  property,  and 
regarded  their  offspring  as  of  no  more  importance  than 
colts  or  calves,  what  meaning  could  they  attach  to 
those  terms  which  implied  delicacy,  self-sacrifice,  love, 
disinterestedness,  long-suffering,  and  magnanimity  ? 
These  things  could  not  have  been  understood  by  them  ; 
they  have  to  be  taught  to  men.  And  they  cannot  be 
taught  by  revelation ;  for  words  do  not  mean  anything 
to  men  until  there  is  developed  in  them  that  which 
those  words  represent.  So  a  gradual  process  of  evolve- 
ment  was  necessary.  Here  is  where  the  principle  of 
anthropomorphism  comes  in  ;  and  the  whole  round  of 


100  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

nature  was  employed  to  lift  up  the  conception  of  Di- 
vinity, in  order  that  he  might  come  near  to  men,  and 
be  understandable  by  them, 

GROWTH   IN   CONCEPTIONS    OF   GOD. 

When  this  process  had  gone  on  to  a  certain  extent, 
then  the  world  began  to  feel  the  movement  whicli 
has  come  on  down  to  our  day.  When  you  reach  the 
Psalms  and  the  Prophets  (minor  and  major),  and  the 
Book  of  Job,  then  you  see  how  this  Being,  thus  formed 
by  the  national  mind,  develops  little  by  little,  and  more 
clearly,  until  he  begins  to  speak  as  a  Teacher  and  as  a 
]\Iagistrate ;  and  then  you  see  him  pointing  out  the 
lines  of  duty,  and  using  the  imagination,  using  reason 
and  hope,  using  pain  and  joy  ;  then  you  see  him  treat- 
ing men  no  longer  as  animals  in  the  stall,  but  as  beings 
far  above  the  level  where  the  race  began ;  and  then  you 
see  that  he  begins  to  display  divine  intelligence.  One 
can  scarcely  read  such  passages  as  are  contained  in  that 
Book  of  Job,  after  pursuing  the  line  of  thought  which  I 
have  attempted  to  disclose  this  afternoon,  without  rec- 
ognizing the  correctness  of  this  view,  of  which  I  have 
given  but  the  merest  outline,  not  going  into  that  detail 
of  which  it  is  susceptible,  if  time  woidd  permit. 

Now  consider,  still  further,  how  this  idea,  thus  gradu- 
ally formed  in  the  minds  of  men,  has  been  tauglit  in 
such  a  way  as  to  bring  it  still  nearer  to  them.  If  you 
have  had  a  father  wliom  everybody  thought  well  of, 
and  who  has  been  everything  to  you,  you  could  liardly 
be  touched  in  any  way  more  quickly  than  by  hearing 
kindly  reference  to  him.  You  are  greatly  pleased  if 
one  says  to  you,  "  0,  I  knew  your  father !     Then  you 


CONCEPTIONS    OF   THE   DIVINITY.  101 

are  the  son  of  my  old  friend.  Come,  go  home  with 
me  ;  come,  walk  with  me  ;  come,  I  must  see  you.  I 
knew  him  well,  and  loved  him."  A  sense  of  the  honor 
and  dignity  and  glory  of  the  father  is  very  precious  to 
the  child. 

Do  you  recollect  Jacob's  prayer  ? 

It  was  not,  "  0  Jehovah  " ;  it  was  not,  "  0  thou  om- 
niscient, omuii^otent  God  "  ;  it  was  not,  "  0  my  meta- 
physical Superior."  It  was,  "  0  God  of  Isaac,  my 
father ! "  How  that  made  the  whole  sphere  of  God  ring 
like  a  bell  in  his  heart !  Did  you  ever  try  it  ?  If  you 
never  did,  then  it  is  because  you  never  have  known  sin 
and  darkness.  I  have  tried  it  in  deep  midnight.  There 
was  no  God  of  providence  and  grace  that  I  could  call 
on ;  to  me  the  idea  of  such  a  God  was  like  mountain- 
tops  in  mist ;  but  I  could  say, "  0  God  of  my  father  and 
of  my  mother,"  and  he  was  at  hand :  and  there  was 
brought  to  me,  quick,  the  sense  that  in  God  there  was  a 
love  which  was  stronger  than  my  father's,  and  sweeter 
tlian  my  mother's ;  and  I  clasped  the  idea,  and  was 
comforted  in  it. 

"What  impulse,  in  a  noble  nature,  is  stronger  than 
love  for  his  country,  and  for  those  great  names  which 
are  the  honor  and  the  glory  of  that  country,  and  are 
its  representatives  ?  Do  you  suppose  it  was  without 
a  reason  that  the  old  Jews  used  to  pray,  "  Lord  God 
of  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob "  ?  Did  not  that 
prayer  bring  right  to  their  memory  and  to  their  sensi- 
bility all  the  things  of  which  the  Jew  was  proud,  —  the 
glory  of  his  origin,  and  the  grandeur  of  all  those  names 
that  stand  up  now  like  mountains  in  the  long  stretch 
backward  ?     The  crook  of  the  earth,  the  bend  of  time, 


102  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

never  sends  their  tops  down  below  the  horizon ;  and 
when  the  Jew  prayed  there  was  a  whole  volume  of 
patriotism  that  gushed  into  his  mind,  and  interpreted 
God  to  him. 

See  how,  throughout  the  history  of  the  Jewish  nation, 
God  was  represented  in  government.  See  how  there 
are  Psalm  after  Psalm  and  song  after  song  in  which  the 
name  of  God  is  celebrated.  And  see  how  God  is  repre- 
sented as  the  One  who  brought  the  people  of  Israel  out 
of  Egypt,  and  led  them  like  a  flock  in  the  wilderness ; 
as  the  one  before  whom  the  sea  fled,  and  armies  trem- 
bled and  melted  away.  See  how  the  Hebrews,  all 
through  their  method  of  teaching,  represented  God 
through  their  personal  affections,  —  through  their  sense 
of  fatherhood  and  motherhood,  through  their  love  of 
country,  and  through  their  pride  of  race.  And  ought 
there  not  to  be  something  like  that  yet  ? 

The  idea  of  God  having  been  inspired  in  men,  and 
clothed  with  every  noble  attribute  which  was  deriva- 
ble from  men's  knowledge,  it  was  brought  to  bear  in 
human  conduct.  Justice,  purity,  fldelity,  reverence, 
and  righteousness  were  qualities  which  were  then  un- 
derstood as  existing  in  God;  because  the  conception 
of  God  had  little  by  little  been  built  from  specimens 
of  these  qualities  in  a  low  and  imperfect  state,  sub- 
limated and  carried  up,  which  kindled  in  the  hearts  of 
men  a'trueridea  of  God  than  otherwise  could  have  been 
developed  in  them. 

Take  Matthew  Arnold.  His  writings  are  very  pleas- 
ant, and  they  contain  a  great  deal  of  valuable  thought ; 
but  when  Mr.  Mattliew  Arnold  tells  us  that  there  is  no 
personal  God,  that  there  is  only  a  stream  of  tendencies, 


CONCEPTIONS   OF  THE   DIVINITY.  103 

and  that  the  Hebrews  believed,  not  in  a  personal  God, 
but  only  in  those  great  causes  which  made  for  righteous- 
ness, I  confess  I  stop.  Mr.  Arnold  has  a  perfect  right 
to  say  that  he  does  not  believe  in  a  personal  God ;  but 
in  the  name  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  and  all 
the  prophets  of  Israel,  I  protest  against  his  saying  that 
the  old  Hebrews  did  not  believe  in  God's  personality. 
He  might  just  as  well  say  that  I  do  not  believe  in  it, 
that  you  do  not  believe  in  it,  that  the  whole  race  do  not 
believe  in  it.  That  would  not  be  a  more  audacious 
thing  than  the  other. 

THE   BARRENNESS   OF  ABSTRACT   PREACHING. 

■  We  are  now  prepared  to  consider  our  own  method 
of  preaching  and  teaching  about  God  to  our  own  peo- 
ple, in  these  modern  days. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  largely  the  metaphysical  and 
the  abstract  that  we  dwell  upon  in  preaching.  I  have 
already  alluded  to  that  in  various  ways.  I  merely 
allude  to  it  again  to  make  the  statement  complete. 
"We  are  accustomed  to  preach  about  God  in  Latinized 
periphrastic  language,  in  language  which  represents 
the  last  ideas  of  civilization.  AVell,  that  does  good,  I 
hope,  to  educated  men,  to  men  who  like  to  indulge  in 
abstract  thought ;  and  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  leaves 
in  them  a  great  Sahara.  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,"  and  he  shall  not  liA^e  by  brains  alone.  The  best 
part  of  a  man's  life  is  in  his  heart.  I  thank  God  that, 
to  a  large  extent,  cultivated  men  do  liv^e  in  their  hearts, 
the  scholastic  age  having  passed,  and  a  larger  and  bet- 
ter age  having  come  in. 

I  see  men  going  to  colleges  to  preach,  and  preaching 


104  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

sermons  that  are  purely  intellectual ;  but,  if  I  were  to 
preach  to  College  Faculty  and  students,  do  you  think  I 
would  hunt  up  a  subject  which  would  require  the  dis- 
cussion of  abstract  questions  that  were  above  the  reach 
of  ordinary  human  life,  thinking  that  to  be  the  kind  of 
preaching  that  they  wanted  ?  No ;  I  should  say,  "  They 
have  too  much  of  that  already."  I  should  say,  "  The 
part  of  these  men  that  lies  in  the  brain  is  overfed ;  and 
there  is  a  great  deal  more  of  them  down  in  the  heart 
that  is  hungering  and  wishing  that  it  could  be  fed." 
I  would  preach  to  that  part  which  unites  humanity; 
which  has  regard  for  all  men,  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor, 
home  or  foreign ;  which  binds  mankind  together,  and 
makes  the  race  one,  the  Avorld  around.  That  is  a  large 
ground,  where  men  need  more  influence,  and  where 
they  are  more  grateful  for  it,  I  think,  than  anywhere 
else. 

In  your  preaching  it  is  not  enough  that  you  should 
define  God ;  especially  is  it  not  enough  that  you  should 
explain  what  are  his  relations  to  natural  and  what  to 
moral  law ;  it  is  not  enough  that  you  should  tell  your 
hearers  how  it  was  that  he  constructed  the  universe, 
and  how  he  said  to  himself,  "  I  am  going  to  create  the 
world  so  and  so."  One  would  think,  from  the  minute- 
ness with  which  these  things  are  described,  that  the 
old  theologians  must  have  been  shorthand  reporters, 
and  must  have  sat  and  taken  notes  at  the  time  of 
creation ! 

I  remember  that  my  venerable  old  father  and  Dr. 
Taylor  used  to  sit  for  hours  together  discussing  the- 
ology in  our  Litchfield  parlor,  when  the  question  was, 
whether  God  could  have  had  a  government  in  wliich 


CONCEPTIONS   OF   THE  DIVINITY.  105 

there  should  or  should  not  have  been  sin,  and  whether 
or  not  men  could  have  been  free  agents.  Father  would 
say,  "  God  would  have  done  so  and  so  in  such  an 
event"  ;"and  Dr. .Taylor  would  say,  "  Stop,  stop,  Brother 
Beecher ;  God  could  not  have  done  so ;  he  would  have 
been  obliged  to  do  so."  Then  father  would  go  on  and 
show  what  God  could  do  and  what  he  could  not  do,  and 
wliy  he  could  or  could  not  do  it,  making  a  disclosure 
of  the  possibilities  and  the  limitations  of  the  Divine 
Mind  which  would  quite  astound  Dr.  Taylor ;  and  so  it 
went,  back  and  forth,  far  into  the  night. 

I  do  not  undertake  to  say  that  there  is  not  in  that 
direction  a  range  of  proper  inquisition  and  discussion ; 
but  this  I  say :  beware  of  making  that  the  substance  of 
your  preaching.  Do  not  delude  yourself  by  supposing 
that  thus  you  are  preaching  God  in  any  understandable 
sense  to  those  who  listen  to  you.  "When  you  discuss 
truths  of  the  Divine  government,  follow  the  example 
of  the  Bible,  especially  in  those  parts  where  God  him- 
self instructs  the  race  by  his  word,  through  inspired 
men,  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  human  society,  the  one 
central  object  being  to  rear  up  before  men  such  a  con- 
ception of  the  Divine  as  shall  rain  down  on  them  a 
power  which  will  lift  men  into  millennial  glory.  Not 
only  should  we  follow  tliat  example,  but,  in  order  to  do 
it,  we  should  resist  that  insensible  drift  which  science 
has  given  to  men's  ideas,  —  science,  which  I  honor  and 
love,  but  which  is  not  immaculate,  and  which  is  im- 
perfect as  an  educator,  —  science,  that  is  crude,  that  is 
not  developed,  and  that  is  begetting  a  tendency  among 
men  to  see  in  things  nothing  but  natural,  i.  e.  immediate, 
causes. 

5* 


/ 


106  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 


GOD   IN  NATURE. 

To  the  old  Hebrews,  a  phenomenon  was  divinity.  If 
they  made  it  literally  a  deity,  without  the  knowledge 
of  an  interjected  mediation  or  cause,  there  was  a  mis- 
take on  their  part ;  but  we  are  making  the  same  mis- 
take. When  we  look  at  an  event,  it  means  some  law 
of  nature  ;  when  we  look  at  rain,  it  means  a  change  of 
atmosphere  ;  when  we  look  at  clouds,  they  mean  a  cer- 
tain atmospheric  condition ;  when  we  look  at  moun- 
tains, they  mean  geological  formations ;  when  we  look 
at  trees,  they  mean  timber ;  when  we  look  at  birds,  they 
are  something  good  to  shoot  and  eat.  In  otlier  words, 
we  vulgarize,  or  we  secularize,  almost  all  things  in 
nature.  "  We  must  look  at  them  as  they  are,"  men  say. 
Look  at  them  as  they  are  !  What  does  that  mean  ?  I 
affirm  that  it  is  quite  possible  for  men  to  have  a  double 
line  of  influence  proceeding  from  a  phenomenon,  one 
tracing  it  in  its  lower  and  secular  connections,  and  the 
other  associating  it  with  the  great  First  Cause,  that 
stands  back  of  all  things,  and  fills  all  things  with  the 
fullness  of  his  own  self. 

No  man  learns  anything  readily  in  sensuous  forms 
who  sees  it  as  matter  only,  and  not  as  the  product  of 
Divine  thought,  —  who  does  not  see  it,  so  to  speak,  as  a 
crystal  from  some  side  of  which  glances  the  portrai- 
ture of  the  Being  that  made  it ;  and  yet,  in  connection 
with  natural  objects,  in  connection  with  things  that 
belong  to  the  departments  of  manufacture  and  com- 
merce, in  connection  with  matter-of-fact  things,  the 
world  is  ceasing  to  talk  of  God  any  more. 

When  we  see  glaciers,  what  do  we  think  of  ?     Agassiz 


CONCEPTIONS   OF  THE   DIVINITY.  107 

and  Tyndall.  When  we  see  mountains,  what  do  we 
think  of  ?  This  or  that  theory  of  geology.  It  is  low ;  it 
is  ill-bred ;  and  we  must  go  back  to  the  habit  of  seeing 
more  in  nature,  and  of  giving  to  nature  uses  in  the 
realm  of  the  imagination  and  of  the  affections.  It  is  a 
habit  which  we  once  had,  but  which  we  have  wellnigh 
lost. 

A  PEESONAL   EXPEKIENCE. 

I  would  not  for  all  the  comfort  which  I  might  get 
from  the  books  of  the  Alexandrian  Library,  or  from  the 
Lenox  Library,  give  up  the  comfort  which  I  get  out  of 
nature.  Nature,  now  that  I  have  had  the  revelation  of 
God  which  interprets  it  to  me,  I  would  not  give  up  for 
anything.  I  had  almost  said  that  I  would  rather  lose 
my  Bible  than  to  lose  my  world.  There  is  no  sunlight 
that  does  not  say  something  to  me  of  the  Sun  of  Eight- 
eousness.  There  is  no  created  thing  that  does  not  say 
something  to  me  of  God  who  framed  it.  I  sit  on  the 
hillside,  in  summer,  and  watch  the  spiders  as  they 
spin  their  webs,  and  the  grasshoppers,  as  they  leap 
over  me,  freshman-like,  jumping  first,  and  looking  to 
see  where  they  have  landed  afterwards ;  and  the  birds, 
as  they  skip  from  branch  to  branch,  or  fly  from  tree  to 
tree.  There  is  not  an  animal  that  distrusts  me.  I  sit 
so  still  that  the  birds  forget  that  I  am  there,  and  sing 
as  they  do  not  often  sing  when  persons  are  near  them ; 
and  the  ants  creep  about  me  and  on  me  ;  and  I  have  a 
sense  of  the  relationship  of  these  things.  There  is 
nothing  that  grows  —  no  weed,  no  grass,  no  flower,  no 
fruit  —  that  is  not  in  some  way  related  to  God  in  my 
thoughts  ;  and  I  am  never  so  near  him  as  when  I  am  in 
the  presence  of  his  works,  —  as  when,  night  or  day,  I  am 


108  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

in  that  solemn  cathedral,  the  world  of  nature,  and  be- 
hold its  ever-changing  beauty.  There  are  no  such 
frescos  in  art  as  God's  hand  paints  in  the  heavens. 
There  are  no  such  relations  of  God  as  come  to  us 
through  nature.  In  the  budding,  blossoming  days  of 
spring,  in  the  balmy  days  of  summer,  in  the  fruitful 
days  of  autumn,  in  the  days  of  winter,  in  every  day  of 
the  year,  there  is  something  which  is  a  separate  leaf  to 
me  in  God's  outside  Bible,  now  that  I  have  learned  to 
read  it.  I  owe  more  to  Euskin  than  to  any  theologian. 
Eyes  I  had,  but  I  did  not  see ;  now  I  see  marvelous 
things.  Ears  had  I,  but  I  did  not  hear ;  now  I  hear 
things  that  are  wonderful  beyond  all  conception. 
New  realms  in  the  universe  of  God  have  been  disclosed 
to  me  through  these  things.  They  have  been  a  source 
of  unspeakable  comfort  to  me ;  and  from  them  I  have 
derived  a  power  of  comforting  other  people  in  my 
preaching.  I  owe  much,  very  much,  to  the  fact  that  I 
have  become,  as  it  were,  Hebraized,  —  that  I  have  gone 
back  and  practiced  upon  the  genius  of  that  noble  old 
stock  who  learned  by  a  wise  spiritualizing  of  things 
visible  to  discern  the  invisible  God. 

FOLLOW   THE   HEBRAIC    SPIRIT,  —  NOT   FORM. 

There  is  another  criticism  that  I  would  make,  or  cau- 
tion that  I  would  give,  —  namely,  that  in  attempting 
to  comfort  yourselves,  and  in  attempting  to  teach 
others  to  comfort  themselves,  in  the  recognition  of  the 
Divine  Being,  you  must  not  be  content  simply  to  go 
over  the  names  that  are  contained  in  the  Old  or  the 
New  Testament,  or  names  that  have  been  subsequently 
developed  and  become  familiar,  as  descriptive  of  God. 


CONCEPTIONS   OF  THE  DIVINITY.  109 

The  power  of  many  of  them  has  perished.  To  us  the 
conception  which  is  given  of  God  by  representing  him 
as  a  lion  is  very  little.  The  early  significance  of  this 
representation  is  gone.  Still  more  strongly  is  that 
the  case  with  those  names  which  made  the  hearts  of 
the  men  of  old  thrill ;  as,  for  instance,  when  God  was 
spoken  of  as  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac, 
and  the  God  of  Jacob.  These  names  are  to  me  the 
names  of  three  very  noble  and  respectable  personages, 
but  not  much  more.  I  am  not  drawn  to  them  by  any 
affinity  of  race-stock.  The  thread  which  ran  down 
from  them  was  spun  so  long  that  it  broke  before  it 
reached  me.  They  are  names  which,  though  they 
are  still  used,  produce  but  little  effect.  They  are  not 
names  that  take  hold  upon  the  feelings  of  people  in 
the  present  day  as  more  modern  ones  would  do.  I 
have  heard  men  pray,  "  0  God  of  Abraham,"  "  0  God 
of  Isaac,"  "  0  God  of  Jacob,"  "  0  God  of  Zion  "  ;  but  I 
never  heard  men  pray,  "  0  God  of  Brooklyn,"  "  0  God 
of  America."  I  never  heard  anybody,  in  prayer,  imi- 
tate the  spirit,  and  not  merely  the  outward  form,  of 
the  Hebrews  in  this  respect.  When  the  old  ante-Christ 
Christians  prayed  to  God,  they  prayed  out  of  their 
necessity,  —  a  necessity  which  led  them  to  give  to  the 
Divine  nature  such  titles  as  we  find  in  the  Bible. 

What  does  a  mother  say,  when  her  child  is  sick,  and 
she  is  in  despair,  and  when  it  flashes  on  her  mind  that 
her  first-born,  her  only  child,  that  she  never  dreamed 
could  be  taken  from  her,  is  dying  ?  How  can  she  say, 
"  0  Lord  Jehovah "  ?  It  would  be  hrutum  fulmen. 
Why  does  she  not  say,  "0  God  of  my  dying  babe  "  ? 
That  would  bring  him  very  near,  in  power.     Why  do 


110  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

you  not  pray  in  the  name  of  your  father,  in  the  name 
of  your  mother,  and  in  the  name  of  your  town  ?  In 
other  words,  when  you  pray,  why  do  you  not  imitate, 
not  externally  but  internally,  those  men  who,  when 
they  went  to  God,  appealed  to  him  in  the  name  of 
those  things  which  were  truest  and  most  significant  to 
them .? 

There  is  a  God  of  men  who  are  bankrupt ;  there  is 
a  God  of  men  who  are  in  prison ;  there  is  a  God  of 
men  who  are  sinful,  and  who  have  been  found  out, 
and  who  are  overwhelmed  with  distress  ;  and  why  do 
not  they  take  their  title  from  their  circumstances  and 
experience  ?  What  an  opener  of  the  Divine  nature  to 
men  it  would  be,  if  they  would  transfer  that  which 
they  need  in  their  peculiar  exigencies  to  the  care  of 
God,  who  is  all  in  all ! 

HOW   TO   REALIZE   THE   DIVINE   PRESENCE. 

It  is  in  the  way  of  which  I  have  been  speaking 
that  we  can  form  some  conception  of  the  Divine  per- 
sonality, or  disposition  and  character  of  God.  We  rise 
up  to  it  through  a  kind  of  anthropomorphism.  By  that 
means  we  come  to  the  best  notion  of  deity  as  a  Being 
possessed  of  dispositions,  and  not  of  attributes  simply. 

Now,  how  can  we  make  this  conception  ever-present 
with  us  ?  I  have  already  hinted  at  the  manner  in  which 
it  may  be  done ;  but  let  me  elaborate  a  few  points  more 
clearly. 

NOT   BY   WILL-POWER. 

We  fail  to  make  a  conception  of  the  Divine  pres- 
ence the  result  of  volition  only,  or  chiefly.     Herein 


CONCEPnONS   OF  THE  DIVINITY.  Ill 

lies  the  great  trouble  with  people.  They  say,  "You 
tell  me  that  I  must  love  God.  I  try  to  love  him,  and 
I  love  to  vacuity.  Though  I  try  to  love,  there  is  no 
God  that  presents  liimself  to  my  mind." 

Did  anybody  ever  talk  to  persons  who  were  seeking 
to  love  God,  that  he  did  not  meet  with  this  difficulty  ? 
Is  it  not  the  universal  experience  in  revivals,  with  per- 
sons who  have  been  educated  catechetically  to  abstract 
notions  of  God,  and  who  have  never  been  educated 
associationally  in  respect  to  the  Divine  nature,  that 
when  they  undertake  to  evoke  Jehovah  by  their  will, 
there  is  no  response  ?  Although  you,  who  are  highly 
cultured,  have,  on  other  grounds,  a  usable  conception 
of  the  Divine  nature,  and  can  evoke  it,  the  great  mass 
of  your  people  cannot,  when  you  describe  it  to  them 
as  it  is  usually  presented  in  systems  of  theology. 

NOT   BY   FIXED   ARTIFICIAL   SYMBOLS. 

We  must  refuse  to  have  a  variety  of  religious  sym- 
bols set  apart  to  be  the  sole  interpreters  of  God.  Of 
course,  those  who  have  High-Church  ears  to  hear  must 
not  hear  what  I  am  going  to  say  now.  I  do  not  object 
at  all  to  a  man's  surrounding  himself  with  symbols  ; 
I  believe  in  symbols  ;  I  believe  that  they  are  the  very 
life  and  power  of  education ;  but  I  do  protest  against 
a  man's  building  a  church  and  putting  a  cross  on  it  in 
order  to  get  an  association  of  God.  I  protest  against 
forms  and  ceremonies  being  introduced  into  religious 
services  for  the  purpose  of  fixing  the  minds  of  men  on 
God.  I  protest  against  bringing  out  ministers  in  black 
and  white,  with  the  view  of  impressing  upon  men  by 
these  colors  certain  moral  qualities.     I  protest  against 


112  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

turnings  and  twistings  as  signifying  spiritual  ideas. 
I  protest  against  tliose  artificial  symbolizations  which 
have  been  invented  to  represent  great  interior  prin- 
ciples and  facts. 

Suppose  I  should  take  a  match  and  strike  a  light 
and  go  and  hold  it  in  a  corner,  and  look  at  it ;  sup- 
pose a  man,  observing  me,  should  ask,  "  Mr.  Beecher, 
what  are  you  doing  ? "  and  I  should  say,  "  I  am  bring- 
ing to  my  mind  a  vivid  conception  of  the  sun  ! "  Sup- 
pose a  man  who  had  been  taught  according  to  the  old 
Hebrew  method,  that  the  morning  sun  comes  from  God, 
—  that  the  tremulous  dewy  atmosphere  of  the  early 
(  hours  is  the  breath  of  God,  —  that  the  wind,  which 
shakes  the  trees,  and  sighs  through  their  branches,  is 
of  God,  —  that  the  perfumes  of  plants  and  flowers  are 
caused  by  God,  —  that  all  creatures  that  live  in  the 
sea,  on  the  earth,  and  in  the  air,  are  God's  creations,  — 
that  all  processes  of  nature  are  carried  on  under  the 
inspiration  of  God,  —  that  whatever  is  spread  abroad 
throughout  the  universe  is  God's  handiwork,  —  suppose 
this  man  to  have  a  deep,  grand  sense  of  the  Divine 
origin  of  all  things ;  and  then  let  him  think  of  these 
little  pickaninny  symbols,  stuck  away  in  the  corner 
of  a  church,  as  representing  moral  and  spiritual  ideas  ! 
It  is  the  poverty  of  them,  it  is  the  meanness  of  them, 
it  is  the  narrowness  of  them,  it  is  their  tendency  to 
fetichism,  that  I  object  to,  and  not  to  the  principle  of 
symbolism  itself. 

BUT  BY   SEEING  GOD   IN  EVERYTHING. 

Take  this  principle,  and  use  it  like  men  touched 
with  the  Divine  spirit,  reaching  up  toward  the  Divine, 


CONCEPTIONS   OF  THE  DmNITY.  113 

and  dwelling  in  the  realm  where  you  recognize  that 
the  "  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the  firma- 
ment showeth  his  hand-work."  There  is  where  you 
should  go  for  your  symbols.  There  is  where  things 
have  their  true  significance.  Prosperity  and  adversity, 
life  and  death,  joy  and  sorrow,  friendships  and  dislikes 
or  repulsions,  —  all  these  things  come  with  significant 
meanings  to  the  minds  of  men  when  they  rise  to  that 
upper  sphere. 

If  in  that  way  it  is  a  principle  of  your  life,  each 
day,  and  all  the  time,  to  make  evcrytliing  a  suggestion 
of  the  Divine,  you  cannot  be  far  from  God ;  you  will 
not  have  to  go  a  great  distance  to  find  him  ;  you  will 
be  in  his  presence  without  seeing  him  ;  he  wall  be  with 
you  at  the  table,  by  the  couch,  in  your  walks,  every- 
wdiere.  All  things  that  you  look  upon  w411  bring  to 
you  some  memory  of  him.  The  very  air  will  be  redo- 
lent w^ith  his  influence.  There  will  be  no  question  as 
to  how  you  shall  bring  him  to  you.  You  will  live 
with  him  ;  you  will  live  in  him  ;  "  for  in  him  we  live, 
and  move,  and  have  our  being." 

Perhaps  I  cannot  better  close  than  by  going  back 
and  reading  to  you  the  Hebrew's  thought  about  this  : — 

"  Thou  compassest  my  path  and  my  lying  down,  and  art 
acquainted  "\Wth  all  my  ways.  For  there  is  not  a  word  in 
my  tongue  but,  lo,  0  Lord,  thou  knowest  it  altogether.  Thou 
has  beset  me  behind  and  before,  and  laid  tliine  hand  upon 
me.  Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  me  ;  it  is  high,  I 
cannot  attain  unto  it.  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit  1 
or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  1  K  I  ascend  up 
into  heaven,  thou  art  there  :  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  be- 
hold, thou  art  there.     If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning, 

H 


114 


LECTUEES   ON   PEEACHING. 


and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea ;  even  there  shall 
thy  hand  lead  me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me.  If  I 
say,  Surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me ;  even  the  night  shall 
be  light  about  me.  Yea,  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee ; 
but  the  night  shineth  as  the  day  :  the  darkness  and  the  light 
are  both  alike  to  thee." 


V. 


PEACTICAL  USE   OF   THE   DIVINE   IDEAL. 


February  26,  1874. 


A  PAEADOX. 


jiST  attempting  to  interpret  to  our  people  the 
knowledge  of  God,  it  is  necessary,  first,  that 
the  Divine  nature  should  be  unknowable, 
in  order   that  it   may   be   know^able  ;    and 

then,  that  it  should  be  known  before  it  can  be  unknown, 

if  you  will  excuse  such  a  paradox  as  this. 


IDOLATEY   AND   MYSTICISM. 

The  human  mind  longs  for  something  which  it  can 
take  hold  of,  and  grasp  by  that  part  of  itself  which  is 
most  active,  and  in  which  its  strength  Kes.  This  desire 
is  the  root  of  all  idolatry.  Idols  are  rude  attempts  of 
men  to  present  to  themselves  a  superior  power  by  the 
use  of  those  materials  with  which  they  are  most  familiar ; 
and  that  root-desire  is  in  itself  right.  Without  it  there 
would  be  no  outreach  toward  God ;  without  it  tlie  soul 
would  not  feel  drawn  or  attracted  heavenward.  This  is 
that  which  in  the  Scriptures  is  rebuked,  —  that  men 
should  attempt  to  frame  a  God  for  their  senses,  and  out 
of  themselves  alone ;  and  yet,  since  all  knowledge  on 


116  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

our  part,  in  its  initial  stages,  must  have  relation  to  our 
own  faculties,  since  we  cannot  understand  anything  that 
addresses  itself  to  other  faculties  than  those  which  we 
have,  all  our  knowledge,  in  the  beginning,  must  be  of 
things  visible,  or  of  things  easily  cognizable ;  we  must 
take  known  things.  Being  taken,  however,  they  must 
be  exalted,  —  they  must  be  carried  up  so  high  that  they 
cease  to  represent  the  weakness  and  the  rudeness  of 
the  human  element.  This  is  the  work  of  faith ;  or,  in 
other  words,  the  work  of  the  imagination,  acting  phil- 
osophically with  the  higher  intellectual  and  moral 
powers. 

If  you  take  the  things  which  are  known,  and  frame 
them  into  divinity  just  as  you  know  them,  and  into 
such  a  divinity  as  shall  stand  on  the  level  with  your 
knowledge,  you  have  an  idol.  If  you  take  the  concep- 
tions which  go  to  make  the  Divine  nature,  and  employ 
abstractions  of  mere  philosophical  ideas,  then  you  come 
into  the  realm  of  mysticism,  or  the  realm  of  pure  ideal- 
ity, that  is  as  barren  of  power  as  idolatry  itself,  —  cer- 
tainly as  barren  of  any  power  for  good. 

THE   KNOWN   RAISED   TO   THE   UNKNOWN. 

So,  then,  the  operation  through  which  the  human 
mind  goes,  in  the  construction  of  its  conception  of  God, 
is  that  of  taking  things  with  which  it  is  acquainted, 
and  forming  that  conception  by  thought,  by  accumula- 
tion, by  various  means,  until  it  is  all  irradiated  by  im- 
agination, and  under  the  Divine  inspiration,  —  which 
I  believe  not  to  be  local  or  special,  but  universal,  in 
everything  that  lifts  a  man  above  the  animal  condition, 
and  belonging  to  all  time,  as  well  as  to  all  men  who 


PRACTICAL  USE  OF  THE  DIVINE  IDEAL.  117 

think  of  moral  ideas  and  the  higher  forms  of  intellec- 
tual truth. 

Under  this  inspiration,  —  or,  if  I  may  so  say,  under 
the  stimulus  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  —  these  ele- 
ments of  knowledge  with  wliich  we  commence  must  be 
lifted  up  into  that  sphere  where  we  can  begin  to  assign 
to  them  infinity,  —  and  to  infinity  there  can  be  no  ab- 
solute meaning  other  than  that  of  illimitable  and  im- 
measurable extent  or  intensity.  These  qualities,  whose 
germ-forms  are  in  our  knowledge,  must  be  raised  into 
a  sphere  in  which  the 'imagination  conceives  of  them  as 
literally  presenting  the  utmost  measures  which  human 
experience  can  apply  in  respect  to  quality  and  quantity, 
—  and  then  recognizing  their  still  vaster  range. 

So  we  take  time-elements,  and  frame  a  conception 
of  the  Divine  Being  out  of  them.  But  then,  before 
we  have  completed  that  conception  it  must  have  entered 
into  the  realm  of  eternity,  and  our  God  must  transcend 
anything  that  the  human  mind  can  conceive  of.  In 
pre-existence  and  in  continued  existence  he  is  exalted 
immeasurably  above  animal  life,  above  human  life, 
above  race-life,  passing  all  the  analogies  or  facts  with 
which  we  began.  "VVe  lift  up  into  the  heaven  that 
which,  when  once  lifted  up,  is  as  much  higher  than 
the  elements  with  wliich  we  set  out,  as  the  clouds  that 
hang  gorgeous  in  the  sky,  or  are  glorified  at  evening, 
are  higher  than  the  particles  of  vapor  when  they  first 
begin  to  ascend  from  puddle,  pool,  or  stream. 

THE   SENSE   OF  INFINITY,   A  MORAL  POWER. 

It  is  this  thought  that  familiarly  springs,  and  must 
spring,  from  your  knowledge,  but  that  must  not  stop 


118  LECTUKES  ON  PEEACHING. 

there,  nor  take  its  limits  there,  —  that  must  be  car- 
ried up  into  the  infinite  and  the  eternal,  —  it  is  this 
thought  that  will  have  much  to  do,  by  and  by,  in  your 
work  of  the  ministry ;  for  you  are  to  do  for  individual 
men  from  the  pulpit,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  that 
which  historically  has  been  done  for  the  race  through 
periods  of  thousands  of  years.  In  other  words,  the 
great  problem  of  the  evolution  of  moral  truth  is  to  be 
enacted  over  again,  —  only  it  is  to  be  done  in  briefer 
and  still  briefer  periods.  If  you  are  a  minister,  you  are 
appointed,  in  some  sense,  to  be  a  Providence  to  your 
people,  and  to  do  in  a  short  space  of  time  what  in 
earlier  periods  was  done  through  the  lives  of  nations 
and  of  the  race.  So,  then,  when  we  have  begun  with 
things  known,  we  are  to  carry  the  idea  of  God  as  far 
away  from  known  things  as  we  can.  In  that  way  we 
get  power;  and  otherwise  there  would  be  no  power. 

The  infinity  of  God,  in  all  its  attributes,  —  the  eter- 
nity of  God,  —  the  self-existence  of  God,  —  you  may 
be  able  to  carry  your  people  back  along  the  line  of 
thought  respecting  these  things  until  they  pant  for 
breath ;  there  is  a  certain  moral  dynamic  result,  some- 
times, by  which  men  are  so  overcome  in  the  contem- 
plation of  the  eternity  and  self-existence  of  God,  that 
they  almost  gasp  at  the  thought  of  it.  Yet  it  is  not 
necessary  that  there  should  be  a  distinct  intellectual 
perception  of  these  things,  in  order  to  get  the  impres- 
sion of  them. 

Thus  it  is  also  in  regard  to  the  universalness  of  God's 
presence,  of  his  absolute  supremacy,  and  of  his  omnipo- 
tent power ;  and  in  these  later  days,  when  we  have  a 
more  perfect  understanding  of  created  things,  the  prob- 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DIVINE   IDEAL.  119 

lem  of  Divine  ease  iu  the  management  of  the  universe 
is  increased  in  difficulty  of  conception ;  and  the  thouglit 
that  one  Being  can  have  personal  care  over  that  which 
we  know  and  are  all  the  time  finding  out  to  be  the 
universe  is  rendered  harder  of  conception. 

Science  is  unpacking  a  particular  part  of  the  uni- 
verse; and  showing  its  infinite  riches  and  variety  and 
depth  and  complexity.  All  elements  that  go  to  make 
science  so  w^onderful  now  are  reacting  in  their  turn, 
and  are  making  that  Divine  Center,  who  is  tlie  Father 
and  Controller  of  these  elements,  still  more  wonderful. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  idea  of  God  has  but  dawned, 
and  that  we  are  to  have  further  and  further  revelations 
respecting  him.  I  believe,  however,  not  that  the  new 
will  slough  off  the  old,  or  supersede  the  old,  but  simply 
that,  as  in  a  stately  tree,  branch  after  branch,  or  as  in 
the  pine,  wdiorl  after  whorl,  makes  all  that  there  was 
more  noble  and  grander,  so  upon  the  basis  of  knowl- 
edge, actual  and  real,  there  is  to  be  development  after 
development,  through  ages,  which  will  give  a  percep- 
tion of  God  that  prophets  may  now  discern  dimly,  but 
that  we  do  not  see. 

DANGER   OF  THE   INFINITE  IDEAL. 

Wlien  you  have  presented  this  thought  of  God  to 
your  people ;  when  to  their  imagination  you  have  filled 
it  full  of  power  and  wonderfulness ;  when  you  have 
made  them  feel  that  God  is,  in  the  heaven,  and  over 
the  heaven,  the  Master  of  time  and  of  eternity,  the 
Indweller  of  the  invisible,  the  Forth-putter  of  all  phe- 
nomena; when  you  have  raised  before  them  an  im- 
mense conception  of  the  Divine  power  and  grandeur 


120  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

uuJ  majesty  and  fullness  and  glory,  —  there  will  be 
danger  of  their  being  without  a  God.  He  will  be  so 
large,  and  he  will  live  in  conditions  so  different  from 
theirs,  that  they  will  be  liable  to  lose  him. 

THE   UNKNOWABLE   REDUCED   TO   THE   KNOWABLE. 

Now,  therefore,  you  must  bring  back  again  from  the 
unknowable  to  the  knowable,  those  whose  imaginations 
are  tremulous  with  the  impressions  of  the  Divine  which 
you  have  made  upon  them.  You  must  lead  them  back 
from  those  depths  to  which  you  have  carried  them,  by 
opening  to  them  God's  righteousness  and  his  paternal 
government,  and  by  making  them  sure  of  the  truth  of 
a  Providence,  j)articular  and  minute. 

I  would  as  soon  die  as  live,  if  I  thought  the  network 
of  natural  law  which  is  being  woven  now  was  to  take 
away  my  faith  of  jorayer,  and  my  faith  of  a  Provi- 
dence, personal  and  especial.  Witli  the  destruction  of 
the  doctrine  of  such  a  Providence,  and  of  the  concep- 
tion of  prayer,  everything,  to  me,  would  be  destroyed. 
Deprive  me  of  these  things,  and  you  deprive  me  of 
that  on  which  my  hope  rests.  "Without  them  I  should 
be  as  an  atom  floating  in  space,  out  of  the  reach  of  any 
sympathy. 

You  need  to  bring  near  to  your  people  that  God  the 
conception  of  whom  you  have  builded  and  magnified 
in  tlieir  hearts,  so  that  they  shall  feel  that  he  is  theirs. 
Point  out  to  me  a  man  whom  all  the  world  is  talking 
about,  who  is  surrounded  by  crowds  of  admirers,  whose 
step  in  tlie  nation  makes  it  tremble,  and  who  is  influ- 
ential and  great,  —  point  out  to  me  such  a  man,  and 
though  I  admire  him  too,  I  stand  in  awe  of  him,  and 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DmNE   IDEAL.  121 

am  afraid  to  approach  him  ;  but  tell  me,  "  That  man  is 
your  own  father,"  and  then  the  more  there  is  of  him 
the  better  it  is  for  me,  because  he  is  mine. 

You  have  taken  poor,  humble  elements,  and  con- 
structed a  God,  and  carried  him  up  into  infinities  and 
eternities  and  sovereignties  and  grandeurs,  that  are  in- 
dispensable to  the  conception  in  the  imagination  of 
men ;  but  if  you  leave  men  shivering  so  far  below  that 
their  sun  has  not  beams  long  enough  to  reach  them, 
they  die,  chilled  and  summerless. 

God,  after  he  has  been  thus  exalted,  is  to  be  brought 
back  to  the  comprehension  of  men  in  various  ways,  and 
particularly  through  that  grandest  of  channels,  Jesus 
Christ,  as  I  shall  show  when  I  come  to  speak  of  him. 

For,  through  him  God  has  been  brought  near  by  a 
sense  of  his  paternity  in  government ;  by  a  sense  of 
reality  in  providence;  by  a  feeling  that  men  partake, 
through  sympathy,  of  the  capacity  of  the  Divine  nature 
to  endure  suffering,  —  not  the  suffering  of  the  weak, 
not  physical  suffering,  not  the  suffering  that  overtaxes 
the  powers,  but  that  suffering  which  belongs  to  love, 
and  without  which  we  can  hardly  conceive  of  a  faithful 
friend  or  a  truly  noble  being,  —  the  very  antithesis  of 
the  Greek  conception,  which  attempted  to  make  God  as 
perfect  as  marble,  until  he  was  little  more  than  a  mar- 
ble statue,  having  a  very  slight  relation  to  life,  and 
being  without  a  throb  of  affection. 

USE    OF    THE    IMAGINATION. 

It  is,  then,  the  known  carried  up  into  the  unknown 
that  develops  the  power  over  men  of  the  Divine  nature. 
First,  it  develops  power  of  imagination.     Tlieologians 

VOL.  m.  6 


122  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

are  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  imagination  as  though  a 
taint  rested  upon  it,  because  it  has  been  so  generally 
employed  in  connection  with  the  merely  beautiful.  We 
think  of  it  as  an  embellishment  of  art,  or  as  that  which 
has  in  it  the  key  of  art.  It  has  to  do  with  the  beauti- 
ful that  poetry  largely  deals  in.  It  has  to  do  with  orna- 
mentation of  rhetoric  or  oratory.  It  has  to  do  with 
grace  of  movement,  with  symmetry  of  form,  and  with 
harmony  of  color.  But  while  the  imagination  certainly 
has  these  sensuous  functions,  it  has  also,  and  pre-emi- 
nently, a  higher  function.  It  works  with  the  intellect ; 
with  the  philosophical  side  of  the  mind;  with  those 
faculties  which  take  in  things  that  are  not  embodied  to 
the  senses  ;  with  the  sense  of  reason ;  with  that  which 
some  people  say  intuates,  or  thinks  by  inspiration,  — 
whatever  you  choose  to  call  it  in  your  philosophy.  It 
is  that  quality  of  the  mind  by  which  a  man,  through  his 
reason,  is  enabled  to  take  in  the  conception  of  things 
which  do  not  present  themselves  to  the  senses.  As  the 
Apostle  (or  whoever  wrote  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews ; 
it  was  not  Paul,  I  will  vouch  !)  defines  it,  it  is  the  "  evi- 
dence of  things  not  seen."  It  is  that  conviction  which 
springs  up  in  the  mind,  of  the  reality  of  things  which 
the  senses  cannot  prove. 

It  is  by  tlie  carrying  up  of  the  known  into  the  realm 
of  the  unknowable  that  men's  imaginations  are  quick- 
ened, and  by  long  dwelling  in  that  realm  that  tliey 
may  be  sanctified. 

It  is  of  vital  importance  that  this  quality  be  awak- 
ened among  your  people.  I  do  not  believe  that  any- 
body can  be  a  Christian  who  has  not  imagination 
enough  to  say  and    to    feel,  "  Our  Father  who  art  in 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DIYIXE   IDEAL.  123 

heaven,"  —  not  in  any  liouse,  not  anywhere  on  earth, 
but  in  heaven.  What  other  thing  in  men  can  climb 
the  ladder  clear  up  to  heaven  but  imagination  ?  How 
can  a  man  stand  and  tell  or  ask  all  the  world  to  rejoice 
at  things  not  seen,  through  any  other  faculty  than  the 
imagination  ? 

There  is  a  form  of  religion  that  may  be  a  hinderance  ; 
but  there  is  another  form  that  is  quickening,  that  is 
vitalizing,  that  is  indispensable ;  and  there  is  nothing 
that  develops  it  more  than  the  presentation  of  a  con- 
ception of  the  Divine  Being  made  up  of  noble  elements 
carried  to  such  an  exaltation  that  they  transcend  knowl- 
edge, so  that  the  mind  goes  feeling,  feeling,  feeling  after 
God. 

As  in  those  vastest  palaces  in  Europe,  such  as  the 
Loiivre,  one  wanders  from  hall  to  hall  and  from  room 
to  room,  until  his  feet  are  weary,  and  he  is  amazed  and 
lost  in  the  multitude  of  apartments,  so,  when  one  ex- 
plores the  nature  of  God,  however  familiar  he  may  be 
with  the  elemental  truths  of  it,  he  goes  on  and  on,  and 
apartment  after  apartment  opens  before  him,  until  his 
mind  is  lost;  but  it  is  not  lost  in  the  sense  of  being 
staggered.  It  is  a  being  lost  which  vitalizes.  The  sense 
is  prodigious  of  the  magnitude  of  such  a  Being. 

THE  HUMBLING    OF   SELF-ESTEEM. 

"When  the  imagination  has  taken  hold  of  the  view  of 
the  immensity,  the  power,  the  righteousness,  and  the 
glory  of  God,  both  physically  and  morally,  it  is  through 
this  faculty,  and  almost  only  through  it,  that  the  natural 
conceit  which  is  found  in  very  many  men  can  be  legiti- 
mately met  and  put  down.     "  There  is  more  hope  of  a 


124  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

fool"  than  of  "a  man  wise  in  his  own  conceit,"  we 
are  told  by  the  cynical  king  of  old.  I  think  the  hard- 
est thing  to  do,  in  this  world,  is  to  put  down  a  man 
who  has  large  self-esteem,  and  who  is  constitutionally 
proud. 

The  men  of  old,  who  shook  the  world,  were  made  up 
in  that  way.  The  men  who  occupy  important  places, 
and  stand  as  pivots  on  which  great  events  move,  must 
be  made  iip  of  good  stuff.  They  must  have  confidence 
in  themselves,  and  they  must  be  certain  of  their  con- 
victions. They  must  be  men  who  are  not  easily  broken 
or  bent.  And  yet  their  conceit  is  to  be  taken  out  of 
them,  and  their  pride  needs  to  be  humbled.  But  there 
is  nothing  that  I  know  of  which  can  ever  bring  such 
natures  down,  except  a  sense  of  God  that  shall  make 
their  own  littleness  overpowering  to  them. 

A  man  with  large  self-esteem,  looking  at  a  great 
thinker  or  one  capable  of  great  feeling,  may  say,  "  That 
man  knows  more  than  I  do  "  ;  but  the  distance  or  dis- 
proportion between  them  is  not  such  as  to  overwhelm 
him.  It  is  only  by  such  a  man's  comparing  his  own 
power  with  omnipotence  that  he  can  be  humbled.  It 
is  true  that  a  man  may  be  cudgeled  into  humility  by 
misfortunes,  or  by  abuse ;  but  under  such  circumstances 
his  power  will  be  broken,  and  he  will  resemble  flax 
that  has  been  retted  in  the  dew,  and  then  broken  in  a 
brake,  and  then  heckled,  and  then  spun  and  woven. 
A  man  may  be  beaten  by  his  contact  with  society  so 
that  he  shall  become  listless ;  or  so  that,  according  to 
the  familiar  saying,  he  shall  have  the  starch  taken  out  of 
hbn.  He  may  be  humbled,  but  he  has  lost  power  in 
the  operation.     There  is  a  sense,  however,  in  which  a 


PEACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DIVINE   IDEAL.  125 

man  may  be  tliorouglily  humbled,  and  yet  maintain  all 
the  vitality,  all  the  lunge,  all  the  push,  that  there  is  in 
strong  self-esteem. 

When  Job  was  assailed  by  his  comforters,  (Heaven 
help  a  man  who  has  such  comforters  !)  he  battled 
against  the  whole  of  them,  and  did  it  bravely,  and  suc- 
cessfully, too ;  but  when  God  came  into  the  contro- 
versy, and  opened  sphere  after  sphere  of  knowledge, 
and  with  wonderful  kindness  said, "  Where  wert  thou 
when  I  thought,  and  where  wert  thou  when  I  created  ? " 
and  made  the  heaven  and  the  earth  to  pass  before  Job, 
then  it  was  that  Job  said,  "  I  have  heard  of  thee  by  the 
hearing  of  the  ear ;  but  now  my  eye  seetli  thee,  where- 
fore I  abhor  myself." 

It  is  only  by  a  sense  of  God  vitalized,  radiant,  burn- 
ing, that  the  pride  of  character,  which  has  in  it  so 
much  power  and  usefulness,  can  be  brought  into  that 
mood  of  humility  which  shall  make  it  as  sweet  as  it  is 
strong. 

Paul  went  through  the  same  experience.  He  said, 
"  I  was  alive  without  the  law  once  [by  '  law '  here  is 
meant  the  revelation  of  the  will  of  God,  and  the  meas- 
ure of  the  Divine  ideal,  which  is  given  to  man] ;  but 
when  the  law  came,  sin  revived,  and  I  died."  He  was 
death-struck  at  the  view. 

GROWTH   OF   AN   UNDEESTANDIJSTG    OF   CHRIST. 

I  have  said  that  tliis  brings  down  conceit,  and  hum- 
bles a  man.  I  go  further :  I  say  that  this  conception, 
beginning  in  known  things,  and  going  up  into  the 
realm  of  the  unknown,  and  tlien  coming  back  to  the 
sphere  of  familiar  knowledge,  is  an  indispensable  pre- 


126  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

requisite  to  an  intelligent  and  large  conception  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  For 
you  must  remember  that  it  was  not  until  the  "  fullness 
of  the  times "  that  Christ  came.  There  was  an  order 
in  the  development  of  the  world ;  and  it  is  not  said  in 
so  many  words,  but  it  is  implied,  and  the  facts  show 
that  it  was  not  until  the  full  development  of  the  char- 
acter of  God,  as  it  is  made  known  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, that  the  distinctive  qualities  which  Christ  brought 
to  light  and  evinced  in  his  life  could  be  fully  appre- 
ciated. For  example,  every  man,  I  think,  before  he 
can  understand  meekness  and  gentleness  and  sweetness 
and  forgivingness  in  any  person,  must  imderstand  the 
magnitude  and  the  power  of  that  person.  The  events, 
the  interpretations,  and  the  applications  in  government 
of  the  Divine  nature  and  attributes,  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, have  no  parallel  in  the  New  Testament,  —  not 
even  in  the  Apocalypse.  That  supreme  work  of  the 
Divine  nature  which  Christ  came  to  interpret  and  to 
illustrate,  and  which  must  precede  the  believing  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  delineated  in  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures  as  it  is  delineated  nowhere  else.  All  the 
elements  of  spiritual  truth  which  are  revealed  respect- 
ing God  in  the  New  Testament  have  their  first  germi- 
nant  form  in  the  Old  Testament. 

THE    NEW   TESTAMENT     SEEN    THROUGH   THE   OLD   TESTA- 
MENT. 

I  do  not  know  where  in  the  New  Testament  you  can 
find  any  such  dramatic  and  soul-shaking  representa- 
tions of  God  as  were  made  to  IMoses  ;  as  were  made  to 
tlie  Projihet  on  the  side  of  the  mountain  where  he  had 


PRACTICAL  USE   OF  THE  DIVINE  IDEAL.  127 

fled ;  as  were  made  in  the  later  prophecies,  —  for  in- 
stance, those  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah;  and  as  were 
made  in  the  Book  of  Job,  —  the  mightiest  drama  ever 
written,  and  one  wliich  leaves  all  other  dramas  poor 
and  pulseless  in  the  comparison.  I  know  not  where 
else  you  can  find  any  such  description  of  the  glory,  the 
largeness,  the  infinity,  and  the  eternity  of  the  Divine 
nature  as  is  contained  in  the  Old  Testament.  You 
certainly  cannot  find  it  in  the  Gospels.  You  can  find 
it  only  to  a  slight  degree,  if  at  all,  in  the  Epistles.  The 
Apocalypse  is  pictorial,  opalescent,  and  wonderful ;  hut 
if  you  search  you  will  find  that  most  of  its  figures 
and  its  sublimest  scenes  are  but  reproductions  from 
the  Old  Testament,  —  that  they  were  found  in  the  Old 
Jewish  Scriptures  in  one  form  or  another  before  they 
were  put  into  the  drapery  of  that  wonderful  later 
book. 

Every  man,  therefore,  should  go  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment through  the  Old  Testament,  either  actually  or 
virtually.  If  he  reads  and  accepts  the  representations 
of  the  Divine  nature  and  government  as  they  are  found 
in  the  Old  Testament,  then  he  goes  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  through  an  open  door,  or  an  illuminated  pas- 
sage-way. And  to  one  who  goes  to  the  New  Testament 
thus,  there  is  great  power  in  Christ. 

Gentleness  in  Him  that  delivered  the  law  upon  Sinai 
is  gentleness  indeed.  There  is  nothing;  so  sfentle  as  the 
touch  of  one  who  is  dying  of  exhaustion ;  but  gentle- 
ness under  such  circumstances  is  weakness,  and  is  as 
nothinsT.  There  is  nothing  more  common  than  the 
relf-renunciation  of  a  man  who  cannot  help  himself. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  world  so  empty  as  virtue  when 


128  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

a  person  does  not  care  what  he  has  done,  and  would 
just  as  lief  have  done  one  thing  as  another.  Benevo- 
lence, where  it  is  only  absolute  indifference  to  moral 
quality,  is  very  easily  understood,  and  is  very  cheap. 
But  when  God  is  represented,  in  the  grandeur  of  his 
power,  as  One  who  is  controlling  the  universe  for  the 
upbuilding  of  a  future  kingdom ;  as  One  who  loves 
righteousness ;  as  One  who  stands  forever,  saying,  "  I 
am  patient  with  sin,  I  am  long-suffering,  I  am  full  of 
kindness,  and  rather  than  that  men  should  suffer,  I 
suffer  " ;  as  One  in  whom  leniency  and  meekness  are 
attributes  of  thunderous  power,  of  universal  unob- 
structed government,  of  sovereignty  ■  and  majesty,  — 
then  these  elements  have  a  meaning  which  they  could 
not  have,  standing  simply  and  only  by  themselves. 

Thus  Jesus  Christ  sprouts  out  of  the  Old  Testament ; 
Messiah  is  a  blossom  of  the  God  of  the  old  Hebrews ; 
and  you  need  to  see  the  stem  and  the  leaves,  as  well  as 
the  blossom.  The  salient  familiar  traits  of  Christ  do 
not  receive  illustration,  and  have  not  power  with  men, 
unless  they  are  shown  upon  a  background  of  the  un- 
knowable, —  that  is,  of  God,  in  such  transcendent  con- 
dition, extent,  and  altitude,  as  passes  knowledge. 

You  will  find  this  same  thing  exemplified  in  the 
New  Testament ;  as,  for  instance,  where  our  Saviour, 
wishing  to  teach  that  lesson  which  is  most  fundamental, 
slowest  to  be  learned,  and  most  easily  forgotten,  know- 
ing that  he  came  from  God,  and  went  to  God  again, 
took  a  towel,  and  girded  himself,  and  washed  the  dis- 
ciples' feet.  For  Peter  or  John  to  put  a  towel  around 
him,  and  wash  the  feet  of  his  fellow-disciples,  though  it 
would  have  been  something,  to  be  sure,  would  have 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF  THE  DIVINE   IDEAL.  129 

been  a  very  small  matter;  but  for  the  ^Master  to  stand 
in  the  full  glow  and  consciousness  of  his  everlasting 
divinity,  and  do  it,  was  a  very  significant  thing.  The 
humiliation,  standing  on  the  ground  of  Divine  con- 
sciousness, was  most  powerful. 

So  you  find  in  Philippians  the  statement  that  "  Christ, 
being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be 
equal  with  God ;  hut  made  himself  of  no  reputation, 
and  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was 
made  in  the  likeness  of  men :  and  being  found  in  fash- 
ion as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient 
unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross."  You  see,  in 
this  case,  that  the  humiliation  on  the  part  of  Christ 
was  voluntary,  and  that  it  was  over  against  a  sense  that 
he  was  very  God.  Another  similar  instance  is  that 
which  is  recorded  in  the  opening  of  Hebrews,  where  it 
is  said,  "  God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners  spake  in  time  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the 
prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  his 
Son."  Here,  over  against  that  consciousness  of  justice 
which  existed  in  the  Jewish  nation,  Christ  is  evermore 
depicted.  And  the  subtle,  unconscious  influence  of 
these  antithetical  passages  lies  in  the  philosophical 
ground  which  I  have  been  attempting  to  illustrate. 

REFLECTED   LIGHT. 

In  view  of  the  statement  that  everybody  must  \dr- 
tually  come  to  the  Xew  Testament  through  the  Old, 
you  may  ask  me,  "  Do  you  not  believe  tliat  a  Chris- 
tianly  bred  child  in  these  days  when  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  less  read  and  taught  than  it  used  to  be,  a  child 
that  has  received  instruction  in  the  New  Testament 

6*  I 


130  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING, 

alone,  and  has  been  taught  what  is  right  and  what  is 
wrong,  what  is  virtuous  and  what  is  unvirtuous,  is 
salvable,  and  may  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ? " 
Undoubtedly  I  do ;  because,  although  the  child  is  im- 
perfectly educated,  the  Old  Testament  is  not  left  out. 
It  is  in  the  mother,  and  the  child  gets  it. 

Eeflected  light  is  a  thousand  times  more  than  direct 
light.  Direct  light  is  the  most  brilliant ;  but  yet,  in 
every  forest,  under  every  rock,  behind  every  house, 
everywhere,  there  are  gradations  of  reflected  light. 

Not  only  does  the  truth  of  God  exist  positively  and 
directly  in  this  world,  but  it  is  reflected  in  a  thousand 
ways.  There  are  truths  of  God  that  come  out  of  laws, 
out  of  institutions,  out  of  manners  and  customs  in 
Christianly  bred  communities ;  there  is  a  truth  of  God 
that  comes  out  of  men's  characters,  that  have  been 
incarnated  and  embalmed ;  and  you  get  a  secondary 
light  of  truth  where  you  do  not  get  the  first  downfall 
of  the  light  of  truth.  And  so  the  child  of  Bible-trained 
parents  may  be  educated  to  know  God  through  Christ 
Jesus  without  having  read  a  word  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

POWER   OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT. 

Many  parents  do  not  dare  to  let  their  children  go 
to  the  Old  Testament.  They  say  there  are  in  it  many 
things  that  shock  the  refinement  of  modern  Christians, 
and  that  they  do  not  want  their  children  to  see.  There 
are,  it  is  true,  many  things  in  the  history  of  the  race 
which  are  not  agreeable  ;  so  there  are  many  things  in 
the  growth  of  every  child  that  are  not  agreeable  ;  and 
we  take  him  off  to  the  nursery,  and  do  not  show  him 
in  the  parlor ;  but  they  are  necessary  parts  of  life, 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DIVINE   IDEAL.  131 

thovigh.  they  do  not  belong  to  polite  society.  And 
there  are  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  which  do  not 
belong  to  polite  literature  ;  bnt  they  belong  to  life, 
notwithstandinfT.  Life  has  knots  and  twists  in  it 
which  must  be  taken  account  of  in  a  true  dehneation. 
Old  Cromwell  wanted  to  be  painted  with  the  wart  on 
his  face  ;  the  Old  Testament  paints  the  warts  on  the 
faces  of  its  heroes. 

Now,  if  parents  are  fastidious  about  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  consequence  is  that  their  children  are  weak- 
ened, unless  they  get  its  reflected  light,  —  and  then 
they  are  not  half  so  strong  as  they  would  otherwise  be. 
I  would  rather  take  my  child  by  the  hand,  and  walk 
with  him  right  straight  through  from  Genesis  to  the 
last  book  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  read  every  bit  to 
him,  unfolding  and  explaining  it,  than  to  have  him 
deprived  of  the  power  which  comes  from  familiarity 
with  it,  —  all  the  time  keeping  before  his  mind  the 
thread  of  moral  principle  which  runs  through  it ;  for 
there  is  not  more  certainly  a  spinal  cord  that  runs 
down  to  the  lumbar  vertebras  than  there  is  a  mag- 
nificent idea  of  God  running  right  through  the  Old 
Testament  from  beginning  to  end,  —  of  a  God  known, 
but  unknowable  ;  of  a  God  righteous,  and  seeking  to 
build  up  righteousness  in  his  creatures ;  of  a  God  ad- 
ministering reward  and  penalty;  of  a  God  inspiring 
love  and  fear.  And  having  opened  up  the  sweet 
encouragement  and  hope  which  are  so  abundantly 
to  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  I  would  then 
open  up  the  New  Testament  view  of  God's  interior 
disposition,  as  made  manifest  through  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 


132  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

I  beseech  of  you,  do  not  be  ashamed  of  the  Old 
Testament.  If  you  are  ashamed  of  it,  God  grant  that 
you  may  suffer  persecution ;  for  I  do  not  think  a  man 
ever  suffered  persecution,  and  fought  bravely  against 
it,  that  he  did  not  take  refuge  in  the  Old  Testament.- 
It  came  out  of  storms,  and  it  is  helpful  to  men  who 
are  in  the  midst  of  storms.  There  is  bone  in  it, 
—  bone  that  has  flesh  and  skin  on  it,  and  that  is 
clothed  with  beauty.  It  is  a  wilderness ;  there  are 
some  rudenesses  in  it,  to  be  sure,  but  these  rude- 
nesses were  unavoidable,  and  they  were  not  without 
some  use. 

The  Old  Testament  is  wonderful  in  many  ways,  — 
wonderful  in  its  growths,  wonderful  in  its  visions,  won- 
derful in  its  total  effect ;  and  it  is  indispensable  as  a 
background  to  the  New  Testament. 

As  mountains  would  be  undesirable  to  live  in,  but 
as,  nevertheless,  they  are  fathers  of  all  the  streams  that 
make  the  level  plain  sweet  and  beautiful,  so  the  Old 
Testament,  though  it  contains  some  things  which  are 
not  attractive,  is  the  source  of  those  truths  which  run 
into  the  New  Testament,  and  make  it  fertile. 

SACREDNESS    OF   THE   NAME   OF   GOD. 

Now,  in  preaching,  let  me  say  first,  do  not  fritter 
away  power  or  reverence,  by  a  tripping  use  of  the 
Divine  name.  I  am  not  reverential  except  through 
one  or  two  faculties.  Eeverence  in  me  is  an  auxiliary 
element.  It  is  merely  subordinate  to  others.  I  re- 
vere anything  that  is  beautiful.  I  revere  Christ  more 
than  I  do  Jehovah.  This  is  my  infirmity.  Therefore 
I  make  a  personal  equation  when  I  study  the  subject 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF   THE  DIVINE   IDEAL.  133 

of  divinity,  knowing  that  I  shall  be  deficient  on  that 
side,  and  endeavor  to  make  up  the  deficiency.  But 
even  /  cannot  endure  the  theological  familiarity  with 
the  name  of  God  which  so  largely  prevails  among  min- 
isters. 

Mr.  Arnold  says  that  men  talk  of  God  as  though  he 
were  a  neighbor  just  around  the  corner,  that  everybody 
knew  aU  about.     It  is  shocking  to  me. 

The  Hebrews  had  a  name  which  they  never  men- 
tioned. This  was  true  not  only  of  them,  but  of  many 
outlying  nations.  They  had  periphrastic  words  or 
terms  which  they  used  for  expressing  the  unpro- 
nounceable name  of  God.  As  they  drew  near  to  it, 
undoubtedly  it  threw  a  sort  of  shadow  upon  them, 
and  veneration  was  excited  in  their  bosom  by  it. 

"Well,  that  is  a  trait  of  human  nature.  If  you  ob- 
serve, you  will  see  that  the  things  which  to  you  are 
the  dearest,  the  noblest,  the  most  precious,  are  the 
things  which  you  are  the  least  likely  to  speak  of. 
Hence  the  most  exquisite  thoughts  of  love  are  those 
which  are  never  uttered.  You  shrink  from  uttering 
them.  It  is  not  shame  that  prevents  your  speaking 
of  them,  but  a  reason  of  nature  which  God  put  in 
you,  and  they  lie  deep  and  unpronounced.  There  are 
many  natures,  fit  to  be  angel-natures,  that  would  die 
rather  than  speak  of  things  in  them  that  it  is  their 
glory  to  possess.  And  there  is  an  application  of  this 
to  the  way  in  which  God  should  be  preached. 

God  is  my  heavenly  Father.  I  used  to  take  liberties 
with  my  earthly  father,  but  I  took  liberties  with  him 
only  so  far,  and  in  some  things ;  and  it  was  all  the 
more  sweet  because  there  was  a  background  in  him 


134  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

that  I  never  took  liberties  witlr  This  always,  as  it 
were,  gave  me  a  sense  of  the  strength  and  the  treasure 
that  I  had  in  him. 

The  very  name  of  God  ought  to  be  sacred. 

THE  preacher's  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD  TO  BE  PRACTICAL. 

In  the  development  of  the  Divine  nature,  do  not 
always  —  do  not  ever,  except  in  your  study  —  stand  at 
God's  center  and  work  out  from  that:  stand  at  the 
soul's  center ;  for  it  is  not  your  calling  to  attempt  to 
construct  a  Divine  conception,  except  for  its  uses.  The 
knowledge  of  the  Divine  nature  which  you  gather  is  to 
be  employed  as  the  bread  of  life,  as  medicine  for  the 
soul ;  and,  therefore,  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Divine 
nature,  while  you  may  make  yourselves  strong  and 
wise  by  standing  at  the  center  of  the  Divine,  and  then 
logically  balancing  attribute  and  quality  with  facts  of 
being ;  while  as  an  exercise,  and  as  a  preparation,  that 
may  be  allowable ;  and  while,  sometimes,  in  that  part 
of  your  ministry  where  you  are  instructing  your  con- 
gregation on  grounds  that  are  to  constitute  the  foun- 
dation of  some  view,  you  may  delineate  from  the 
Divine  center ;  yet,  mainly,  you  are  physicians,  called 
to  prescribe  for  the  wants  of  men,  to  eradicate  the 
bad  and  develop  the  good  in  them ;  and  therefore  your 
teaching  in  regard  to  the  Divine  nature  must  be  largely 
relative  to  human  necessity.  This  is  an  important  ele- 
ment in  preaching. 

What  is  fundamental  in  theology  is  not  necessarily 
essential  to  a  practical  conception  of  the  Divine  na- 
ture ;  for  many  things  are  indispensable  in  the  construc- 
tion of  a  system  which  are  not  at  all  indispensable  in  the 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DIVINE   IDEAL.  135 

recovery  of  a  soul.  Predestination  is  the  central  point 
in  the  scheme  of  Calvinism ;  knock  that  point  out,  and 
you  cannot  hold  this  system  together;  but  revivals 
will  spring  up,  and  men  will  be  converted  and  become 
Christians,  without  ever  having  heard  of  that  doctrine. 
It  is  necessary  for  a  certain  logical  development  of  an 
idea  or  a  philosophy,  but  it  is  not  necessary  as  a  cura- 
tive process  for  the  depraved  heart. 

You  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  you  cannot  develop  the 
whole  of  the  Divine  nature.  You  can  form  a  generic 
conception  of  God,  and  you  are  to  do  it ;  and  then  you 
are  to  take  part  after  part  of  that  generic  idea,  and 
adapt  it  to  the  Avants  of  men. 

That  is  the  example  of  the  Old  Testament ;  it  is  pre- 
eminently the  example  of  the  New  Testament;  and, 
whether  their  theory  be  that  or  not,  it  is  the  example 
of  men  in  their  employment  of  the  knowledge  of  God 
for  the  recovery  of  souls  from  sin  to  righteousness. 
Human  want,  man's  need,  therefore,  must  decide  how 
the  Divine  nature  should  be  preached. 

SYMMETRICAL   PREACHING. 

This  determines  a  question  about  which  there  has. 
been  a  great  deal  of  confusion  of  thought,  namely, 
the  question  of  proportion  of  truth,  or,  in  other  words, 
of  symmetry  of  view.  People  sometimes  say  of  a  man 
who  preaches  under  the  inspiration  of  human  life, 
"He  is  a  good  minister,  but  he  preaches  all  on  one 
side."  There  are  theologians  who  preach  under  the 
inspiration  of  a  system  of  truth,  and  not  under  the  in- 
spiration of  human  life  ;  who  are  all  the  time  afraid 
that  something  will  happen  to  batter  that  system  in 


136  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

on  this  side,  or  pull  it  out  on  that  side ;  who,  if  they 
preach  one  view  one  Sunday,  think,  for  no  reason  in 
creation  than  because  they  j)reached  that  view,  that 
next  Sunday  they  must  preach  the  view  which  is  its 
natural  antithesis ;  and  who  tlius  go  on  preaching 
around  the  ribs  of  an  imaginary  system,  to  keep  it 
from  being  lopsided. 

Now,  in  the  first  place,  you  d*o  not  know  enough  to 
do  it ;  nor  do  any  others  know  enough  to  do  it ;  and 
more 's  the  pity  if  they  think  they  do.  The  power  of 
developing  the  Divine  nature  in  its  universal  forms  is 
not  given  to  us  ;  and  nowhere  else  is  this  more  jDosi- 
tively  declared  (to  the  shame  of  arrogant  thinkers  and 
teachers)  than  in  the  Bible  itself.  You  cannot  yet  tell 
all  that  there  is  in  the  Divine  nature ;  and  until  you 
can,  you  cannot  make  a  symmetrical,  center-poised 
view  of  God.  You  can  develop  as  much  of  the  Divine 
nature  as  is  adapted  to  man,  or  as  much  as  is  relative 
to  his  want;  but  even  that  part  that  is  tangible,  or 
comprehensible,  or  within  the  horizon  of  faith;  is  to  be 
used  in  due  proportions :  not,  however,  on  account  of 
any  imaginary  dignity  which  there  is  in  theology,  nor 
because  of  any  fear  that  you  will  pain  God.  I  do  not 
think  God  cares  very  much  for  your  sermons  anyhow ; 
but  he  does  care  for  men's  souls.  I  suspect  that  lie 
cares  more  for  that  end  of  the  church  than  he  does  for 
this  end,  —  though  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  on 
that  subject. 

When  my  ministry  was  in  the  West,  what  did  I  find  ? 
A  loose  and  heterogeneous  mass  of  men  who  had  come 
from  everywhere,  —  a  detritus  from  the  stream  of 
emigration.     As  at  the  Delta  of  the  Mississippi  is  gath- 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DIVINE   IDEAL.  137 

ered  refuse  which  floats  down  from  the  region  above, 
so  in  the  West  were  gathered  human  beings  from 
almost  every  nation  on  the  globe;  and  there  the 
principle  of  individualism  was  the  predominant  one. 
I  insisted  upon  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  day ;  I  in- 
sisted upon  the  absolute  necessity  of  churches,  and  of 
church  forms ;  and  I  insisted  upon  the  indispensable- 
ness  of  authority,  and  of  obedience  to  that  authority. 
I  preached  Sunday  after  Sunday  against  individualism, 
and  in  favor  of  association. 

By  and  by  I  was  transferred  to  the  East ;  and  there  I 
found  society  hard-ribbed,  vigorous.  Men  were  lopped 
off  on  every  side,  to  make  them  fit  into  crowded  pop- 
ulations. Society  was  tyrannical.  And  ever  since  I 
came  East  I  have  fought  society,  and  tried  to  get  indi- 
vidual men  to  be  free,  independent,  and  large. 
■  I  was  right  both  times.  I  did  not  care  for  abstract 
theories.  My  object  was  to  get  men.  When,  by  reason 
of  their  condition,  they  needed  one  side  of  truth,  I  kept 
pouring  that  side  of  truth  on  them.  Not  that  I  neg- 
lected instructively  to  bring  up  other  sides  of  truth ; 
but  I  made  predominant  that  side  which  they  were 
most  in  need  of.  The  instrument  with  which  I  molded 
them  was  adapted  to  the  state  which  they  were  in.  In 
the  West  I  tried  to  bring  men  together  in  collective 
bodies  for  the  sake  of  developing  more  power  and  bet- 
ter fruit ;  and  in  the  East  I  tried  to  get  men  out  of 
their  Pharisaism,  so  that  they  might  breathe  freer,  and, 
like  trees  that  stand  in  the  open  field,  grow  broader, 
throwing  out  side-branches,  and  developing  the  glory 
of  society. 

Now,  if  I  had  to  study  the  proportions  of  a  philoso- 


138  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

phy,  I  should  probably  study  in  such  a  way  that  I 
would  save  ray  philosophy,  but  lose  my  men. 

Ninety-nine  times  out  of  a  hundred,  when  you  want 
to  do  anything  with  promiscuous,  common  people,  you 
are  obliged  to  exaggerate.  If  you  take  one  needle  and 
push  it  into  a  round  ball  of  yarn  you  have  no  difficulty 
in  making  it  go  through ;  but  if  a  man  says,  "  It  is 
not  fair  to  take  one  needle  alone,  here  is  the  whole 
paper,  they  must  all  have  a  chance,"  and  puts  them 
into  the  ball,  and  pushes  them,  together  they  are  as 
blunt  as  tlje  handle  of  a  chisel.  Fifty  needles  pushed 
in  a  bunch  do  not  prick  anybody.  And  if  you  say, 
"  Now  I  am  going  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  God's 
moral  nature ;  but  then,  I  am  going  to  define  it,  and 
explain  it,  so  as  to  take  away  all  possible  ground  of 
objection,"  you  will  produce  no  impression.  You  will 
try  to  maintain  your  central  truth  or  system,  without 
any  regard  to  the  salvation  of  men. 

You  bear  down  on  conscience  in  such  a  way  that 
every  man  in  your  congregation  understands  what  you 
mean,  and  is  affected  by  your  discourse;  but  an  old 
instructed  man  says,  "  Well,  yes,  that  was  ti'ue  ;  but 
then,  it  was  exaggerated."  Of  course  it  was.  What 
does  a  microscope  do  but  exaggerate  ?  What  does  any 
one  of  our  tentative  processes  do  but  exaggerate  ?  Ex- 
aggeration is  often  necessary  where  certain  effects  are 
to  be  produced. 

In  malarial  districts  they  give  men  quinine  ;  and  if 
they  were  to  act  on  the  principle  that  there,  must  be  a 
symmetrical  system  supported,  on  the  principle  that 
medicine  must  be  administered  proportionally,  having 
given  a  dose  of  quinine,  they  would  have  to  give  a  cor- 


PRACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DIVINE   IDEAL.  139 

responding  dose  of  something  else  to  balance  it.  Is 
that  the  way  the  medical  practice  is  carried  on  ?  Who 
cries  for  symmetry  in  medicine  ?  Symmetry  in  health 
is  what  we  want. 

VAEIATIONS   OF  PREACHING. 

One  class  of  persons  in  your  congregations  will  re- 
quire one  kind  of  treatment,  and  another  class  will 
require  another  kind  of  treatment ;  and  they  should  be 
made  to  understand  that,  whatever  system  you  employ, 
or  whatever  mode  of  presentation  you  employ,  you  em- 
ploy it  with  reference  to  the  welfare  of  the  souls  of  men. 

If,  for  instance,  a  company  of  poor,  ignorant  servant- 
girls,  who  are  perceptive,  who  are  sensuous  in  their 
nature,  that  is,  live  by  things  seen  and  felt ;  who  act 
according  to  rules  and  regulations  ;  who  fulfill  their 
duties  by  hours  ticked  off  on  the  clock,  doing  first  this 
thing,  then  that  thing,  and  then  that,  —  if  such  a  com- 
pany of  servant-girls  should  come  into  your  congrega- 
tion, you  must  conform  your  teaching  to  the  state  which 
they  are  in ;  only,  it  must  always  aim  at  carrying  them 
a  stage  higher.  You  must  go  down  to  them,  —  not  to 
stay  with  them  ;  not  to  encourage  them  to  stay  where 
they  are ;  not  to  treat  them  as  if  they  could  not  be  car- 
ried higher ;  but  to  lift  them  up.  You  must  minister 
to  their  want  in  such  a  way  as  to  raise  them  from  one 
elevation  to  another ;  and  they  will  take  in  more  truth 
and  more  truth,  until  they  become  well  versed  in  those 
things  which  pertain  to  their  interest  as  immortal 
beings. 

If  you  go  into  a  congregation  of  men  who  are  edu- 
cated ia  commerce,  you  must  adapt  your  preachiag  to 


140  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

their  Liases,  and  use  terms  witli  which  they  are  famil- 
iar ;  only,  in  adapting  yourself  to  their  biases  you  must 
see  to  it  that  you  lead  them  into  another  and  a  larger 
sphere  of  thought  and  life.  You  cannot  deal  with 
humble  folks  (who  are  humble  by  nature),  you  cannot 
deal  with  limber-backed,  willowy  folks,  as  you  can  with 
old,  tough,  sturdy  men.  Why,  there  will  be  men  in 
your  congregations  on  whose  minds  storms  of  truth  will 
fall  like  dews  on  an  alligator's  back,  and  what  are  you 
going  to  do  with  such  men  ? 

There  is  a  time  for  preaching  damnation.  There  are 
moods  and  states  in  dealing  with  which  the  element  of 
fear  is  indispensable. 

I  would  not  thank  anybody  to  go  with  a  prairie  plow 
and  six  yoke  of  oxen  into  my  garden  or  on  to  my  farm, 
among  my  shrubs  and  trees,  and  roots  and  flowers ;  and 
yet,  if  I  had  a  fresh  piece  of  prairie  land,  wire-bound 
and  rooted  a  foot  deep,  nothing  but  that  plow  and 
those  oxen  would  rip  through  it  and  turn  it  bottom- 
side  up. 

There  are  times  and  circumstances  in  which  the  fear 
element  is  indispensable,  and  people  seem  to  think  that 
because  at  such  times  and  under  such  circumstances 
you  ply  the  dormant  senses,  and  strike  through  the 
thick  hide  with  fear,  therefore  you  must  always  do  it. 

Men  say  to  a  minister,  "  Ah !  I  remember  what  soul- 
stirring  sermons  you  preaclied  when  you  were  in  the 
country ;  and  do  not  you  remember  how  you  brought 
in  those  old  sinners  ?  but  you  have  given  up  preaching 
such  sermons  now."  Well,  if  a  man  was  in  the  same 
place,  and  remained  in  the  same  state,  he  ought  to  be 
preached  to  in  the  same  way ;  but  he  ought  to  change, 


PEACTICAL   USE   OF   THE   DIVINE   IDEAL.  141 

and  come  to  a  higher  plane  of  development,  and  need 
different  preaching. 

I  hold  that  the  nearer  men  live  to  matter,  the  more 
sensuous  must  be  the  representations  which  are  made 
to  them.  In  other  words,  they  cannot  understand  any- 
thing which  does  not  approximate  to  their  nature.  It 
is  right  to  bear  down  upon  men  with  the  lower  forms 
of  revelation  of  the  Divine  government  when  it  is  neces- 
sary, but  only  when  it  is  necessary.  It  is  not  right  to 
carry  the  blazing  torch  of  hell-fire  all  the  way  through 
your  ministrations  just  out  of  respect  to  a  doctrine. 

The  nobler  elements  of  the  human  soul  are  those 
which,  when  they  behold  beauty,  recognize  it ;  and 
when  they  behold  right,  accept  it.  If  you  can  bring 
men  up  to  that  state  in  which  they  are  cultivated  mor- 
ally, and  in  which  they  can  be  made  to  accept  the 
higher  way  from  the  noblest  motives,  that  is  the  better 
and  the  truer  course.  If  you  cannot  do  that,  fall  back 
and  see  if  you  cannot  take  them  on  the  next  lower 
range.  If  you  fail  there,  take  them  on  the  next  lower 
if  you  can.  Thus  keep  going  down  till  you  find  where 
they  can  be  reached.  Your  preaching  should  be  such 
as  to  arouse  men  wherever  they  are.  And  its  charac- 
ter must  be  determined  by  what  you  want  to  accom- 
plish. Do  not  pour  down  rain  and  hail  where  smiles 
would  be  better.  Do  not  use  the  double  fist  when  the 
wave  of  welcome  would  be  better.  Act  with  intelli- 
gence in  these  respects. 

HUMAN   NEED,   THE   PKEACHER'S    GUIDE. 

I  find  no  more  incompatibility  in  the  ministries  of 
men,  between  a  belief  in  a  great  and  terrible  future,  in 


142  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

darkness,  in  desperate  sorrows,  in  awful  catastrophes, 
such  as  it  makes  the  soul  quiver  to  think  of,  —  I  find 
no  more  incompatibility  or  inconsistency  between  this 
belief  and  a  belief  in  the  love  of  Christ  that  breathed 
on  Calvary,  than  I  do  between  the  declarations  of 
Sinai  and  the  declarations  of  Calvary.  But  this  I 
think :  that  the  ministry  which  develops  any  one  side 
of  the  Divine  character  always  and  everywhere,  whether 
it  be  the  highest  or  the  lowest  side,  relatively,  without 
a  consideration  of  its  uses,  is  an  imperfect  ministry ; 
and  that,  in  delineating  the  Divine  nature  and  the  Di- 
vine government,  when  you  come  to  administer  that 
which  you  know,  you  must  stand  at  the  center  of  the 
human  soul;  you  must  be  a  man  among  men;  you 
must  weep  with  those  that  weep,  and  rejoice  with  those 
that  rejoice ;  you  must  know  your  people  so  as  to  be 
able  to  meet  their  want.  Sometimes  it  will  be  tonic, 
and  sometimes  it  will  be  diluent,  that  they  need  ;  some- 
times it  will  be  courage  and  hope,  and  sometimes  it 
will  be  an  influence  which  shall  counteract  presumption 
and  overweening  confidence.  Go  to  the  inexhaustible 
armory  of  God,  and  bring  back  and  serve  out  to  the 
people  those  armaments  which  shall  make  tlie  weak 
strong,  and  the  strong  stronger,  and  by  which  even  the 
babes  shall  be  nourished  into  a  true  Christian  man- 
hood. 


VI. 


THE  MANIFESTATION   OF   GOD   THROUGH 
CHRIST. 

Febraary  27,  1874. 

HAA^E,  for  the  last  three  lectures,  spoken 
on  the  subject  of  the  Divine  Nature  ;  and 
more  particularly  as  it  is  developed  in  the 
^3^4  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  or  by  our  reflec- 
tion on  its  relations  to  nature  and  government.  This 
afternoon  I  wish  to  speak  of  that  manifestation  of  the 
Divine  nature  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ. 

There  was  in  the  life  of  the  Saviour  as  regular  a 
development,  both  external  and  internal,  as  ever  takes 
place  in  the  life  of  any  man.  Coming  into  the  world, 
and  assuming  the  human  condition,  he  passed  through 
it  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  He  "  grew  in  stature." 
He  "  increased  in  wisdom."  Not  simply  did  he  pass  as 
by  name  into  human  conditions,  but  he  partook  of  hu- 
man life.  When  he  entered  upon  the  ministry  he  was 
a  teacher  of  morals  and  of  piety.  He  had  in  himself 
qualities  which  belonged  aforetime  to  the  old  Hebrew 
teachers,  and  much  that  was  in  common  with  the  best 
Rabbis  of  his  time. 


144  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

CHRIST'S  PERSONALITY  THE  CENTER  OF  HIS    INSTRUCTION. 

But  there  was  one  distinguisliing  element  which  ap- 
peared early,  which  grew  more  and  more  emphatic, 
and  which  at  last  showed  that  it  was  the  very  center 
of  all  his  instruction ;  and  that  was  that  he  himself,  in 
his  own  personal  life  and  being,  was  the  Truth,  and 
that  all  other  truth,  higher  or  lower,  had  its  validity 
in  faith  in  him,  on  the  part  of  those  who  heard  him. 

He  was  unlike  any  other  teacher.  No  prophet  had 
ever  yet  said,  after  instructing  his  people:  "All  this 
knowledge  ripens  and  receives  its  true  genius  in  you, 
when  you  fall  in  love  with  me."  No  Apostle,  illumi- 
nated as  they  had  been  by  Christ's  teaching,  ever  dared 
to  say,  after  the  most  eloquent  expositions  of  truth : 
"  I  am  the  center  of  my  own  argument."  And  no 
teacher  since,  in  the  philosophic  schools,  or  in  the 
moral  and  religious  schools,  has  ever  presumed  to  ap- 
proach such  a  thought  as  this.  It  is  unique.  It  stands 
absolutely  alone  among  the  utterances  of  sane  men. 
In  fantasies  and  insanities  there  is  sometimes  such 
an  exorbitant  element  of  self-esteem,  that  men  think 
themselves  to  be  Divine;  but  that  is  a  morbid  phe- 
nomenon which  no  man,  as  an  acknowledged  leader 
among  men,  sane  in  body  and  sane  in  mind,  ever  in- 
troduced into  his  teaching.  This  personal  element, 
this  claim  by  a  teacher  that  his  teaching  took  hold  of 
men  for  good  by  reason  of  their  personal  adherence 
to  him,  w^as  never  put  forth  previous  to  the  time  of 
Christ. 

It  would  sound  very  strange  to  you  if  I  were  to  say, 
"  Now,  such  of  you  as  love  me  will  understand  Avhat  I 


THE  MANIFESTATION   OF  GOD  THROUGH   CHRIST.      145 

have  said";  and  yet  that  was  the  teaching  of  the 
Saviour  all  through  his  life.  "  I  am  the  Light "  ;  "I  am 
the  Bread  that  came  down  from  heaven  " ;  "  Believe  in 
me,"  were  his  injunctions.  His  sovereignty  was  al- 
ways calm  and  serene ;  and  as  the  center  of  his  teaching, 
above  everything  else,  was  this  command :  "  Believe 
in  me."  He  stood  for  everything.  It  was  out  of  be- 
lief in  him,  or,  better,  out  of  personal  relation  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  were  to  grow  all  the  phenom- 
ena he  taught  and  preached,  and  which  men  needed. 

If  you  find,  on  searching  the  New  Testament,  that 
this  is  the  truth  in  Christ  Jesus,  it  is  very  plain  that 
whatever  method  you  may  employ  in  preaching  Christ, 
God's  anointed,  that  element  must  determine  the  col- 
lateral modes ;  and  the  direction  and  general  tendency 
of  your  teaching  must  be  to  bring  men  into  a  personal 
recognition  of  Christ,  and  into  an  actual,  positive  soul- 
relation  to  him.  You  have  preached  superficially  if 
you  have  given  knowledge  merely ;  you  have  preached 
thoroughly  and  truly  only  when  you  have  given  life 
in  him.  That  is  the  test,  or  should  be,  of  pastoral 
orthodoxy,  —  one's  capacity,  one's  aptitude  to  bring  the 
souls  who  are  committed  to  his  charge  into  personal 
love-relationship  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

This,  then,  is  the  beginning,  the  foundation,  the  sub- 
structure, of  every  true  gospel  ministry. 

To  preach  Christ,  however,  is  something  more  than 
laboring  with  the  souls  of  men,  though  that  will  be  a 
part  of  it.  There  must  be  presented  a  conception  of 
Christ.  There  must  be  enkindled  in  men's  minds 
an  idea  of  personality ;  and  in  some  way  it  must  be 
brought  near  to  them. 

VOL.  III.  7  J 


146  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 


CHRIST  TO  BE  PRESENTED  HISTORICALLY. 

ISTow,  in  doing  this,  we  are  to  bring  home  to  men  the 
biography,  the  life,  —  the  historical  life,  —  of  Christ. 
For,  although  the  sj)iritual  juncture  of  the  Divine  na- 
ture and  the  human  is  the  end  of  your  ministry,  one  of 
the  educating  ways  of  inculcating  that  is  by  a  more  per- 
fect representation  to  your  people  of  Christ  as  he  existed 
on  earth.  And  in  this  regard  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
geographical  and  the  archaeological  elements,  the  chron- 
ological arrganemeut  of  events,  the  whole  psychological 
delineation  of  the  period  in  which  Christ  lived,  may 
very  fitly  enter  into  the  preacher's  plan  much  more 
largely  than  in  the  olden  times. 

I  think  that  men  discuss  disproportionately  tlie  doc- 
trines of  divinity,  and  the  historical  elements  of  Christ's 
life  not  enough.  I  speak  from  reminiscences  of  my 
own  childhood.  In  modern  days  the  study  of  the  char- 
acter of  Christ  is  becoming  far  more  general  and  search- 
ing than  it  used  to  be.  Within  the  past  fifty  years 
there  have  been  some  hundred  biographies  written  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Clirist,  showing  the  drift  of  men's  minds 
on  this  subject ;  and  no  ministry  can  hereafter  be  a 
fruitful  and  instructive  one,  according  to  the  wants  of 
the  times,  that  neglects  this  great  field  of  investigation. 

RELATIVE   IJIPORTANCE   OF   CHRONOLOGICAL  ACCURACY. 

There  will  be  difficulties  in  this  work.  There  are  so 
many  questions  connected  with  the  matter  of  incarna- 
tion, —  of  the  Divine  nature  brought  into  human  con- 
ditions ;  there  are  so  many  other  points  of  controversy 
in  the  New  Testament,  particularly  in  the  structure  of 


THE  MANIFESTATION   OF   GOD   THROUGH   CHRIST.      147 

the  Gospels  ;  there  is  so  much  in  this  undertaking  that 
refines,  or  perplexes,  or  does  both,  that  it  is  not  an  easy 
matter  to  investigate. 

For  example,  whichever  Gospel  you  take  to  make  out 
the  mere  order  of  events,  you  convict  the  other  Gospels 
of  irregularity.  There  is  no  harmony  between  them, 
and  no  possibility  of  making  them  harmonize.  Their 
discrepancies  are  the  despair  of  all  harmonists,  if  I  may 
so  call  them. 

Elicott  uses  some  such  illustration  as  this :  if  you 
take  the  order  of  events,  one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  sLx, 
seven,  eight,  nine,  ten,  in  Luke,  and  then  take  those 
same  events  in  Matthew,  they  will  appear  there  as  one, 
five,  three,  seven,  four,  two,  eight,  six,  ten,  nine,  —  and 
so  of  the  other  Evangelists.  The  order  of  time  cannot 
be  established  throuoh  them. 

These,  however,  are  superficial  matters.  Their  con- 
nection is  lost.  All  the  circumstances  need  not  be 
similarly  stated  in  respect  to  time.  Conceive,  for  in- 
stance, of  eight  or  ten,  or,  to  make  tlie  numbers  alike, 
four  old  men  who  were  acquainted  with  Xew  HaAcn 
fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  imagine  their  giving 
their  remembrances  of  President  Dwight.  One  story 
calls  out  another.  One  man  relates  some  circumstance, 
and  that  reminds  another  man  of  some  other  reminis- 
cence. They  go  on  giving  anecdote  after  anecdote,  and 
discourse  after  discourse ;  and  the  order  in  \vhich  they 
are  given  is  the  order  of  association,  and  not  the  order 
of  time.  Their  statements  are  not  chronologically  ar- 
ranged. Now,  the  four  Gospels  are  a  collection  of 
memorabilia.  The  various  incidents  are  put  down, 
sometimes  in  the  order  of  time,  and  sometimes  not. 


148  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

Sometimes  they  are  gathered  into  groups  by  their 
apparent  connection  with  each  other. 

So  the  want  of  a  chronological  arrangement  of  the 
facts  renders  your  study  of  the  life  of  Christ  from  the 
text  somewhat  difficult ;  but  it  does  not  take  away 
from  its  profitableness.  Nor  would  the  mere  possession 
of  such  an  arrangement  of  itself  make  your  preaching 
efficacious.  You  might  make  a  complete  biographical 
statement  of  the  life  of  Christ  in  time,  and  in  his  rela- 
tion to  history  and  archaeology  at  large  ;  you  might,  in 
a  course  of  lectures  on  the  philosophy  prevalent  in 
Palestine  at  the  time  of  his  advent,  describe  the  then 
state  of  the  schools,  and  give  the  whole  history  of  the 
conception  of  Christ,  of  his  birth,  of  his  childhood,  of 
his  development  into  manhood,  and  of  his  entrance  into 
the  ministry,  following  him,  fact  by  fact,  all  through 
his  life,  and  illustrating  it  at  every  step,  and  yet  never 
preach  Christ  so  that  your  people  would  come  into  near 
relations  to  him.  You  might  delineate  Christ  and  his 
career  as  you  would  Caesar  and  his  campaigns,  making 
him  a  man  and  a  marvel,  without  enkindling  any  feel- 
ing of  personal  relationship  to  him  in  the  minds  of 
men,  without  stirring  up  in  them  any  enthusiasm  re- 
specting him,  and  without  awaking  in  their  souls  any 
sense  of  spiritual  want  and  supply. 

So,  then,  while  to  preach  Christ  thus  is  a  very  im- 
portant part  of  your  work,  it  may  be  said,  as  a  general 
thing,  to  be  only  a  preliminary,  preparatory  part  of  it. 

THE   DOCTRINE   OF   CHRIST'S   DIVINITY. 

Next,  it  may  be  thought  that  Christ  is  preached  to 
men  when  his  divinity  is  set  forth  to  them,  and  when 


THE   MANIFESTATION    OF   GOD   THEOUGH    CHKIST.       149 

tlie  claims  of  that  divinity  are  urged  among  them.  Let 
me  not  be  understood  as  undervaluing  the  textual  bat- 
tle, when  I  say  the  text  is  the  weakest  of  aU  the  elements 
in  the  proof  of  the  divinity  of  Christ ;  although  there 
have  been  times  when  that  form  of  proof  predominated 
over  almost  every  other.  In  my  judgment,  the  j)re- 
ponderance  of  the  evidence  of  the  text  is  unquestion- 
ably very  largely  in  favor  of  the  divinity  of  Christ. 
But  to  me  the  mere  textual  affirmations  of  it  —  what 
may  be  called  the  exterior  proofs  which  go  to  sub- 
stantiate it  —  amount  to  comparatively  very  little, 
simply  because  the  other  forms  of  evidence  by  which  it 
is  proved  are  overwhelming,  so  that  I  do  not  need  these. 
But  I  am  considering  it  in  its  abstract  relation  to  the 
wants  of  the  congregations  in  which  you  will  minister. 
There  are  very  many  persons  to  whom  the  whole  in- 
ward meaning  of  the  washing  of  the  disciples'  feet 
(which  is  one  of  the  proofs,  to  my  mind,  of  Christ's 
divinity)  will  amount  to  nothing ;  whereas  the  affirma- 
tion that,  "  being  in  the  form  of  God,  he  thought  it  not 
robbery  to  be  equal  to  God,"  would  amount  to  a  great 
deal.  And  the  wants  of  such  natures,  even  if  they  are 
not  the  deepest,  if  only  they  are  not  merely  external  or 
superficial,  are  to  be  met. 

Hence,  there  is  a  fair  field  for  textual  argumentation 
on  the  subject  of  Christ's  divinity.  It  goes  but  a  little 
way ;  and  yet  that  little  way  is  important.  If,  how- 
ever, one  rests  the  whole  of  his  teaching  on  that  ground, 
he  comes  almost  infinitely  short  of  the  task  that  is 
committed  to  him.  For  a  Christ  proved  is  not  neces- 
sarily a  Christ  realized ;  a  Christ  in  argument  is  not 
necessarily  a  Christin  one's  moral  consciousness. 


150  LECTUEES   ON   PREACHING. 


THE   TRINITY. 

Then,  there  are  other  relations  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ :  namely,  its  relations  to  government,  to  the 
Trinity,  and  to  the  Atonement. 

I  am  a  Trinitarian  ;  not  because  I  understand  the 
Trinity,  but  simply  because,  all  the  Scriptures  being 
taken  into  account,  that  solution  of  the  Divine  exist- 
ence is  more  easy  and  natural  of  comprehension  than 
any  other.  Nor  do  I  find  the  slightest  incongruity  or 
the  slightest  inharmony  of  idea  in  the  teaching  of  it. 
But  the  importance  of  that  doctrine  is  another  matter. 
In  Boston,  during  the  Socinian  defection,  there  was  an 
abnormal  importance  attached  to  it ;  certain  great  move- 
ments happened  to  hinge  and  turn  on  it ;  but  it  ought 
not  to  be  supposed,  because  the  relation  of  Christ  to 
the  Trinity  was  important  then,  or  because  it  is  impor- 
tant in  the  construction  of  a  systematic  scheme  of 
theology  now,  that  it  is  equally  important  in  the  convic- 
tion and  conversion  of  men  by  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus. 

"When  men  come  to  me  with  difficulties  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  of  his  coequality 
with  the  Father,  —  saying,  "  How  is  it  possible  that  he 
should  be  God,  Avith  such  limitations  and  such  weak- 
nesses and  such  circumscriptions  ?  How  can  you  con- 
ceive of  Three  in  One  ? "  —  if  I  should  reply  philosophi- 
cally, I  should  say  that  the  analogy  of  nature  led  to 
a  presumption  of  a  Trinity  ;  or  that,  at  any  rate,  it  took 
away  all  the  presumptions  against  it. 

If  you  will  allow  a  moment's  digression,  looking  at 
it  in  the  light  of  modern  discoveries  we  find  that  life, 
organized  in  its  simplest  possible  forms,  develops  into 


THE  MANIFESTATION  OF  GOD  THEOUGH  CHRIST.   151 

complexities ;  and  that  these  complexities  themselves 
separate  into  groups  ;  until  we  come  up  to  man,  where 
we  find  a  multiplication  of  faculties,  families  of  facul- 
ties, in  the  human  soul,  —  first  those  faculties  which 
relate  to  the  physical  organization,  then  those  faculties 
which  relate  to  man  in  his  social  connections,  and  then 
those  faculties  which  relate  to  the  invisible  Spirit  and 
the  moral  world. 

ISTow,  the  next  step  would  be  in  the  line,  not  merely 
of  the  multiplication  of  faculties,  or  of  groups  of  facul- 
ties, but  of  the  multiplication  of  personalities.  And  if 
we  were  to  be  carried  one  step  further  in  the  line  of 
natural  analogical  development,  it  would  not  tax  men 
severely  on  that  side  to  believe  in  the  tri-personality  of 
the  one  God,  —  although,  judged  upon  the  plane  of  hu- 
man experience,  it  is  unintelligible.  At  all  events,  I 
can  say  that,  to  my  mind,  there  is  less  proof  against  it 
than  there  is  for  it. 

If  it  were  asked,  on  the  other  hand,  "  How  can  you 
conceive  of  such  limitations  and  weaknesses  as  existed 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  during  his  earthly  life  ?  How 
can  you  conceive  of  him  as  divine  in  the  relations 
which  he  then  sustained  ?  "  my  reply  would  be  this  : 
that  no  man  is  able  to  say  how  much  is  required  for 
divinity ;  for  it  is  not  quantitative  alone,  —  it  is  quali- 
tative as  well.  We  estimate  one's  nature  by  its  attri- 
butes, and  not  simply  by  its  magnitude.  Who,  then, 
can  tell  how  much  it  takes  to  make  divinity  ?  Who 
has  weighed  God  ?  Who  has  numbered  his  qualities  ? 
Who  has  any  such  knowledge  as  to  say  that  the  de- 
velopment of  mind-power  and  soul-power  thus  far  con- 
stitutes one  an  angel,  and  that  their  development  thus 


152  LECTUEES  ON  PEEACHING. 

far  constitutes  one  a  Deity  ?  Who  can  tell  where  the 
finite  touches  the  infinite  ?  No  man  has  the  instru- 
ments by  which  he  can  make  these  measurements.  All 
that  men  can  do  is  to  say  that  one  is  divine  in  quality, 
and  by  his  relations  to  the  human  want  and  the  human 
soul. 

In  regard  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  constructive  theo- 
logians attempt  to  develop,  in  the  theory  of  the  Trinity, 
exactly  what  is  his  position,  and  what  are  the  relations 
which  he  sustains  to  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
but  I  have  been  accustomed  to  say  to  men,  "  Jesus 
Christ  is  one  who  stands  over  against  every  want  in 
the  human  soul,  and  if  he  is  such  a  one  that  you  may 
love  him  with  all  your  strength,  if  you  may  reverence 
him  with  all  your  power,  if  you  may  lean  on  him  with 
the  utmost  confidence  that  belongs  to  the  human  soul, 
—  you  may  trust  in  him  for  time  and  for  eternity  ;  and 
you  could  not  do  more  toward  God  than  that.  And  the 
upward  yearning,  the  moral  aspiration  which  you  feel, 
is  the  evidence  of  Christ  in  you.  You  trust  him  as 
divine  when  you  give  to  him  all  that  you  can  give. 

Whatever  lies  beyond  that  may  be  a  fit  sphere  for 
discussion  and  for  argumentation  with  philosophical 
men,  and  with  theologians  ;  yet,  so  far  as  concerns  your 
work,  which  lies  in  the  actual  field  of  the  ministry, 
it  seems  to  me  that  this  practical  experience  of  the 
divinity  of  the  Saviour  will  be  more  apt  to  bring 
men  into  vital  relations  of  faith  with  him,  than  the 
mere  philosophical  and  defined  relationships  of  Christ 
to  God. 

I  have,  in  my  ministry,  been  surrounded  by  multi- 
tudes of  persons  who  were  reared   in  the  Unitarian 


THE   MANIFESTATION   OF   GOD   THROUGH   CHRIST.      153 

faith,  whom  I  have  found  to  be  persons  of  moral  worth, 
of  honesty,  of  conscientiousness ;  and  I  have  pursued 
almost  invariably  the  following  course,  in  attempting 
to  deal  with  them  on  this  subject :  I  have  attempted  to 
awaken  in  their  souls  a  strong  moral  need.  I  have 
attempted  to  ply  the  truth  so  as  to  awaken  in  them 
growth,  yearning,  aspiration.  And  then,  when  they 
were  aroused,  and  their  desire  was  strong,  I  have  said 
to  them,  "  There  is  a  view  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  which 
will  adapt  itself  exactly  to  your  want " ;  and  I  have  pre- 
sented Christ  to  them,  as  he  stands  related  to  the  soul 
as  the  best  argument,  and  as  the  one  which  leads  to  the 
most  logical  conclusion  to  which  they  can  come.  And, 
one  by  one,  under  that  mode  of  treatment,  in  which  the 
controversial  way  is  laid  aside,  and  the  case  has  been 
made,  as  it  were,  matter  of  medical  practice,  opening 
men's  necessities  to  them,  stimulating  their  desire,  mak- 
ing their  hunger  more  intense  and  more  imperative,  and 
then  presenting  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  relations  of 
love,  —  they  have  accepted  him  without  question,  leav- 
ing until  afterward  the  argument  of  moral  coTisciousness, 
which  is  the  transcendent  argument,  to  which  all  others 
are  subordinate. 

AVhen  one  can  say,  "  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liv- 
eth,"  out  of  a  consciousness  of  experience  running 
throuQ-h  the  rantje  of  his  life,  he  has  no  need  of  further 
argument.  He  has  an  argument  that  is  above  every 
other.  And  to  lead  men  on,  step  by  step,  without  con- 
troversy, to  develop  their  moral  life,  and  to  make  Christ 
necessary  food  to  them,  is  the  way  in  which  thousands 
and  thousands  of  men  may  be  brought  to  a  sweet  rela- 
tionship of  a  faitli  in  Christ. 
7* 


154  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 


THE  ATONEMENT. 

In  the  relation  of  the  Saviour  to  the  Atonement,  I 
have  had  this  experience :  that  thousands  of  men  have 
been  perplexed  with  what  I  may  call  its  philosophical 
theory.  I  have  been  accustomed  to  teach  men  in  regard 
to  this  matter,  that  first  of  all  Christ  was  to  be  accepted 
as  a  living  fact ;  that,  not  denying  the  theory  of  possi- 
bility as  to  how  he  came  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world, 
which  is  not  without  its  importance,  nevertheless,  to 
know  that  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  made  so 
by  Divine  preparation,  and  brought  hither  to  save  men 
from  their  sins,  is  more  important  than  to  know  just  liow 
it  was  adjusted  through  Divine  processes  and  arrange- 
ments of  government.  For,  when  he  presented  himself, 
the  command  was  not,  "  Believe  in  me  on  account  of 
such  and  such  logical  arguments  of  fitness  and  propriety 
and  governmental  adjustments,"  but,  "  Believe  in  me  on 
account  of  what  I  am."  And  he  that  believes  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  accepting  him,  does  not  necessarily 
need  to  know  how  he  came  to  be  so  and  so.  Must  we 
not  believe  in  God  until  we  know  how  he  came  into 
existence  and  how  self-existence  is  possible  ?  Must  we 
not  believe  a  fact  until  we  know  the  whole  history  of 
that  fact  ?  Must  we  not  read  a  letter  until  we  know 
how  the  paper  was  manufactured,  how  the  ink  was 
made,  and  all  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was 
indited  ?  It  may  be  interesting  to  know  these  things  ; 
but,  after  all,  the  news  which  the  letter  contains  is  the 
main  thing. 

If  I  am  sick,  and  a  prescription  is  made  for  me  by 
one  who  is  competent   to  make  it,  I  do  not   take  it 


THE   MANIFESTATION    OF   GOD   THKOUGII   CHRIST.      155 

because  I  nnderstand  the  theory  of  my  sickness,  nor 
because  I  know  the  ingredients  of  the  mixture  which 
the  physician  has  prescribed  for  me,  nor  because  I  know 
what  is  in  his  mind :  I  take  it  by  faith  in  him ;  and 
its  action  is  the  proof  of  its  excellence. 

Now,  you  can  present  Jesus  Christ  to  men  (I  am 
speaking  of  those  who  are  difiicult  to  reach)  so  as 
neither  to  perplex  them  in  regard  to  his  relations  to 
the  Godhead,  nor  to  entangle  them  in  discussions  of 
the  theory  and  philosophy  of  the  Divine  atoning  work. 

If  you  present  the  mere  fact  that  Christ  died  to  save 
sinners,  the  heart  wiU  often  say,  as  a  refrain,  "  Of  whom 
I  am  the  chief ! "  If  you  say  that  Christ,  by  his  own 
nature,  by  his  declared  love,  by  his  offices  as  Eedeemer 
of  the  world,  will  receive  all  souls  that  come  to  him, 
and  purify  them,  and  save  them,  that  is  enough  for 
salvation.  It  may  not  be  enough  for  you  in  making 
out  your  system  of  philosophy  or  of  theology ;  but  it 
is  enough  for  your  preaching,  —  and  you  must  con- 
stantly bear  in  mind  that  in  these  lectures  I  am  speak- 
ing of  all  these  theological  elements,  not  as  to  their 
structural  value,  but  merely  as  to  their  functional  use 
in  the  practical  work  of  preaching.  I  apprehend  that 
more  men  have  been  converted  by  the  simple  presen- 
tation of  Christ  as  a  Person  than  by  the  presentation 
of  the  Atonement  as  a  doctrine.  Without  undervalu- 
ing the  doctrine  or  philosophy  of  the  Atonement  as  it 
is  held  by  one  school  or  by  many,  I  say  that  if  you 
preach  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  revealed  in  tlie  Word  of 
God  as  One  who  came  into  the  world  to  pity,  to  spare, 
to  uphold,  and  to  save  men,  you  will  be  more  appre- 
hensible, and  you  will  come  nearer  and  more  quickly 


156  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

to  men's  consciousness,  than  if  you  go  a  long  "way 
around,  and  undertake  to  explain  the  problems  of  the 
moral  government  of  God  as  it  is  administered  in  tlie 
universe,  and  attempt  to  show  how  it  is  that  God  is 
able  to  do  this,  that,  or  the  other  thing,  —  how,  for  in- 
stance, he  can  be  just  and  yet  the  justifier  of  those  who 
believe. 

It  is  the  living,  personal  Christ,  therefore,  who  ought 
to  be  the  end  and  object  of  your  ministry :  not  to  the 
neglect  of  those  other  questions,  but  because  the  gTeat 
mass  of  men  are  on  a  plane  where  they  will  be  more 
susceptible  to  the  fact  than  to  any  reasoning  upon  the 
fact. 

THE   NEW   JERUSALEM   BETTER   THAN   THE   OLD. 

As  I  have  already  intimated,  in  preaching  Christ  to 
men,  while  you  bring  up  the  historic  Christ  as  the 
basis  of  all  knowledge,  it  becomes  absolutely  necessary 
that  you  should  not  stand  upon  the  Christ  of  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago.  You  must  say,  as  Paul  did,  "  It  is 
Christ  that  died,  yea,  rather,  that  is  risen  again."  If 
you  could  trace  the  thoughts  of  men,  I  think  you 
would  see  that  much  obscurity  and  hmderance  in  the 
development  of  their  spiritual  life  has  arisen  from  the 
fact  that  they  have  attempted  to  go  back  to  Jerusalem 
for  their  Christ.  I  know  I  did  in  many  periods  of  my 
life.  I  tried  to  submit  to  Christ ;  and  I  imagined  him 
as  walking  into  and  out  of  Jerusalem.  In  imagination 
I  sat  with  him  under  the  olive-tree,  and  looked  up 
into  his  august  face.  In  imagination  I  walked  with 
him  in  Bethany.  In  imagination  I  stood  by  his  side 
as  he  looked  upon  Jerusalem,  and  tried  to  come  to  a 


THE  MANIFESTATION   OF   GOD   THKOUGH   CHRIST.      157 

sense  of  the  infinite  pity  which  he  felt.  Thus  I  went 
step  by  step  with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  imagination. 
I  was  in  bondage  to  the  history  of  Christ ;  and  it  was 
not  until  I  had  broken  loose  from  that  bondage,  and 
was  enabled,  by  the  Spirit  of  God  quickening  the  un- 
derstanding and  the  heart,  to  look  up  to  a  Christ 
living,  that  my  yearning  was  satisfied.  A  Christ  a 
thousand  times  more  glorious  than  Jerusalem  ever 
saw ;  a  Christ  a  thousand  times  freer,  and  fuller  of  the 
manifestation  of  love,  than  any  historical  Christ;  a 
Christ  larger  in  every  way  than  the  Christ  of  the  past ; 
a  Christ  enwrapping  every  soul  as  the  whole  atmos- 
phere of  a  continent  broods  over  each  particular 
flower ;  a  Christ  conceived  of  as  living  near,  as  over- 
hanging, as  thinking  of  each  one,  and  as  working  for 
him,  —  such  a  Christ  had  power  with  me. 

If  you  train  your  people  to  go  back  to  old  Jerusalem 
it  will  be  a  weary  pilgrimage.  There  is  benefit  in  that ; 
but  the  New  Jerusalem  is  better.  The  ocean  of  the  air 
is  easier  traversed  by  the  thought  than  the  sea  is  by 
the  body.  Not  the  Christ  of  antiquity,  but  the  "  Christ 
that  died,"  and  "  is  risen  again,  who  is  ever  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession 
for  us,"  —  that  is  the  best  Christ  to  represent  to  your 
people  as  manifesting  God,  and  the  one  that  will  be 
most  potential  with  them. 

CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD'S  PERSONAL   DISPOSITION. 

Let  me  say,  further,  that  when  our  Saviour  came 
into  the  world  a  knowledge  of  God  prevailed ;  but  it 
was  most  largely  a  knowledge  of  God  as  a  Power,  as  a 
Governor.     The  thought  of  one  God,  existing  in  great 


158  LECTURES  ON  PEE  ACHING. 

power,  in  supreme  wisdom,  and  in  general  goodness, 
had  been  established  in  the  Jewish  consciousness,  if  I 
may  so  say ;  but  the  private  disposition  of  God  had  not 
kept  pace  with  that  thought  in  the  minds  of  the  Jews. 
They  conceived  of  God  as  a  Governor. 

Now,  you  may  know  the  governor  perfectly,  and 
not  know  the  man.  Governorship  is  artificial.  Gov- 
ernor is  an  abstract  term  which,  when  you  loolv  into  it, 
you  find  to  mean  simply  a  functionary,  —  one  who  docs, 
performs,  and  not  one  who  is.  The  Jews  had  come  to 
a  full  conception  of  God  as  the  Governor  of  the  uni- 
verse, —  as  the  Lord  Jehovah.  It  seems  to  me  that 
Christ  came  into  the  world  to  make  known  to  men 
God  in  his  innermost  and  personal  disposition  ;  and 
that  "  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  "  in 
Jesus  Christ  is  that  manifestation  which  needs  to  be 
made  of  the  inner  thought  and  private  disposition  of 
the  Creator. 

CHEIST,   THE  DELIVERER. 

If  you  look  further  into  the  development  of  Christ 
in  time,  you  will  find  that  he  was  not  so  much  one 
that  revealed  sin ;  for  a  consciousness  of  sinfulness  had 
become  developed  in  the  Hebrews,  in  the  old  Jews  ;  a 
moral  sense  had  been  formed  in  them,  and  it  had  pro- 
digious power.  The  great  fault  was,  that  it  expended 
itself  on  artificial  observances,  and  not  on  things  nat- 
ural. The  best-minded  Jews  in  the  time  of  the  Saviour 
were  a  thousand  times  more  conscientious  than  we 
are ;  but  they  frittered  away  their  conscience.  They 
spent  it  on  ten  thousand  little  conventional  ceremo- 
nies.    Eight  or  wrong,  with  them,  was  compliance  or 


THE   MANIFESTATION    OF   GOD   THROUGH    CHEIST,      159 

uoucompliance  with  certain  artificial  arrangements. 
Every  step  of  their  life  was  ritualized  and  symbolized. 
They  could  not  walk,  they  could  not  eat,  they  could 
not  look  up  or  down,  they  could  not  turn  right  or  left, 
without  coming  in  contact  with  something  that  con- 
veyed to  them  an  idea  of  right  or  wrong.  Carried  to 
the  extent  that  it  was  among  the  Essenes,  it  almost 
separated  men  from  life  ;  and  they  were  tormented  by 
it.  They  were  under  a  bondage  of  conscience  which 
was  strong,  multifarious,  and  minute,  and  which  took 
away  all  real  hberty,  and  all  momentum  of  the  moral 
nature. 

Christ  came  not  to  reveal  that  men  were  sinful,  but 
to  release  them  from  sinfulness.  He  was  a  Saviour  and 
Deliverer.  He  reproached  men  that  they  were  binding 
burdens  on  their  fellow-men,  making  it  -harder  and 
harder  for  them  to  use  their  functions  naturally,  and 
to  live  with  spontaneity,  and  under  the  inspiration 
of  great  motives  that,  once  in  operation,  took  care  of 
themselves,  through  Divine  guidance.  He  came  to 
untie  what  had  been  bound.  He  came  to  unravel  what 
was  knit.  He  came  to  set  man  on  another  plane.  He 
came  to  teach  men  that  not  what  they  ate  or  drank, 
that  not  what  went  into  the  mouth,  but  that  which 
went  out,  defiled  them.  He  came  to  say  to  them, 
"You  may  eat  consecrated  bread  or  unconsecrated 
bread,  so  that  your  heart  is  right."  He  came  to  show 
them  that  right  and  wrong  had  reference  to  the  internal 
state  of  men,  to  the  qualities  of  their  disposition ;  and 
that  it  was  the  moral  sentiments  of  the  soul  that  de- 
termined rectitude  and  the  opposite,  and  not  any  mere 
external  acts.     He  went  back  of  the  artificial,  and  lib- 


160  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

erated  his'  countrymen  from  a  bondage  whicli  was 
destroying  their  moral  sense,  and  put  them  on  larger 
ground,  —  the  ground,  namely,  that  right  or  wrong  was 
to  be  determined  by  the  interior  faculties  of  every  man. 
And  he  put  himself  into  such  a  relation  to  these  inte- 
rior faculties,  that  a  man  who  loves  him  with  all  his 
heart  will  have  one  guiding  master-impulse  for  right, 
and  that  all  the  other  dispositions  will  take  their  rela- 
tive places  in  gradation  under  it,  and  will  act  according 
to  its  direction. 

As  when  the  great  wheel  in  a  factory  turns  every 
other  wheel  spins  and  buzzes,  so  he  who,  through  the 
inner  man,  puts  himself  in  the  relations  of  love  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  will  have  that  central  and  controlling 
element  turning  every  other  faculty  right,  or  making  its 
action  right. 

Christ  did  not  come,  then,  so  much  to  convict  men 
of  their  sins,  as  to  show  them  how  they  might  be  re- 
leased from  sinfulness  through  faith  in  him,  and  through 
loving  obedience  to  him. 

When,  therefore,  in  preaching  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
to  men,  you  find  that  they  are  in  perplexity  as  to  the 
exterior  life,  as  to  the  outward  and  governmental  rela- 
tions of  the  Saviour,  there  is  a  way  of  escape  from 
human  consciousness  of  sin,  and  from  human  want  of 
support  and  helpfulness  to  the  Divine  Deliverer. 

CHRIST  TO   ACT   THROUGH   THE  PREACHER'S  PERSON- 
ALITY. 

I  have  never,  in  all  my  ministry,  had,  in  my  own 
experience,  any  such  realization  of  the  Saviour,  or  any 
such  tenderness  of  love  toward  him,  as  that  which  I 


THE  MANIFESTATION   OF   GOD   THROUGH  CHRIST.      161 

have  enjoyed  in  attempting  to  release  men  from  preju- 
dice and  bondage  in  the  natural  life.  The  clearest 
views  of  the  Saviour  that  I  have  ever  derived  have 
been,  not  from  argument  and  theory,  which  were  dark, 
and  which  I  could  not  understand,  but  from  the  living 
consciousness  of  men. 

AVheu,  in  times  of  religious  inquiry,  I  have  had  men 
coming  to  me,  I  have  studied  their  character ;  I  have 
studied  their  wants;  I  have  studied  their  surround- 
ings ;  I  have  felt  such  an  anxiety  about  them  that  I 
have  gone  again  and  again  to  see  them  ;  I  have  looked 
into  their  nature,  and  attempted  to  set  the  strong  parts 
over  against  tlie  weak  parts,  to  help  and  succor  them ; 
and  I  have  asked  from  day  to  day  with  growing  in- 
terest about  their  condition,  until  at  last  there  has 
been  light  dawning  on  their  souls.  And  I  have  felt 
myself  so  strong  and  joyful  in  their  release,  that  there 
has  flashed  out  in  my  own  mind  the  thought :  "  Why, 
that  is  Christ  in  you.  You  are  brooding  these  men. 
You  are  thinking  of  them.  You  are  looking  into  all 
their  interior  economy.  You  are  making  their  life 
your  own.  You  are  pouring  your  own  life  into  them. 
You  are  giving  them  the  stimulus  of  hope.  You  are 
ministering  to  them  the  power  of  your  courage.  You 
are  nursing  and  caring  for  them.  And  if  you,  being 
evil,  know  how  to  do  such  good  things,  how  much 
more  shall  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven  do  them ! " 
Then,  with  that  experience,  born  out  of  such  conduct, 
going  back  to  the  text  of  the  New  Testament,  I  saw  it 
flaming  where  before  it  smouldered ;  and  passages  that 
had  been  didl  as  lead  began  to  put  on  a  radiancy  which 
they  have  never  lost.    Stars  may  go  down,  but  stars  are 


162  LECTUEES   ON   PIIEACPIING. 

not  quenched  ;  and  texts  may  pass  out  of  the  horizon, 
but  they  come  again,  and  never  go  back  to  their  dark 
estate  if  they  are  illumined  by  such  glorious  passages 
of  heart  exj^erience. 

Well,  following  up  that  analogy,  I  have  sought  again 
and  again  to  use  it.  Persons  would  come  to  me  in  the 
utmost  anxiety  of  mind :  "  Mr.  Beecher,  I  belong  to  a 
different  parish,  and  you  may  think  it  strange  that  I 
do  not  go  to  my  own  minister ;  but  somehow,  though 
he  is  an  excellent  man,  I  am  not  in  sympathy  with 
him ;  I  do  not  feel  free  in  his  presence  ;  but  I  have 
alw^ays  felt  that  you  had  such  sympathy  with  people 
that  I  could  come  and  tell  you  all  my  difficulties," 
I  let  them  go  on,  and  kept  them  on  that  strain,  till  they 
poured  out  their  whole  heart  in  confession ;  and  then 
I  turned  on  them,  and  said :  "  You  have  confidence  in 
me  ;  you  believe  that  I  want  to  help  you,  aud  I  do  ;  I 
give  you  my  hand  on  it ;  I  would  not  spare  myself ;  I 
would  help  you  at  all  hazards  ;  but  what  am  I  ?  There 
stands  right  back  of  me  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
feeling  of  sympathy  which  you  see  in  me  is  but  a 
spark  which  sprang  out  of  that  Orb  ;  why  do  you  not 
go  to  the  Saviour  with  the  same  living  faith  which  you 
repose  in  me,  and  say,  '  I  come  to  thee  for  help ! ' " 
Thus,  out  of  that  personal  feeling,  I  kindle  in  them  a 
sense  of  Christ. 

HUMAN   EXPERIENCE  TO   INTERPRET   THE   NATURE  OF 
CHRIST. 

Carry  it  further.  Wlien  persons  come  to  me,  and  I 
instruct  them,  and  find  that  they  are  careless  and  heed- 
less, and  have  not  followed  my  instructions,  do  I  give 


THE   MANIFESTATION   OF   GOD   THROUGH    CHRIST.      1C3 

them  up  ?  I  may  rebuke  them,  and  point  out  to  them 
then-  folly.  I  may  use  stringent  motives  to  excite  them 
to  a  better  way ;  but  out  of  that  comes  to  me  a  sense 
of  the  patience  and  the  gentleness  of  Christ.  I  had 
almost  said  that  now  my  living  Christ  has  been  formed 
out  of  the  fragments  of  Christ-likeness  that  I  have  seen 
in  men  or  in  women,  or  that  have  been  developed  in 
me.  I  have  taken  these  precious  particles,  as  it  were, 
and  have  framed  them  more  or  less  into  conceptions ; 
and  those  conceptions  have  been  exalted  and  glorified ; 
and  I  have  been  surprised  to  find,  on  going  back  to  the 
Bible  with  these  conceptions,  and  reading  it  again,  how 
fuU  of  meaning  were  parts  of  it  which  before  did  not 
mean  anything  to  me. 

The  letter  does  kill  or  blind ;  and  the  spirit  does 
give  life ;  but,  oh  I  how  blessed  the  letter  is  when  the 
soul  is  alive  to  read  it !  How  blessed  the  Word  of  God 
is,  in  its  experimental  parts,  when  it  takes  light,  not 
merely  from  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  from  the  Holy  Ghost 
shiaing  through  the  living,  personal,  human  conscious- 
ness, bringing  your  deepest  nature  to  the  verification  of 
it,  and  kindling  in  your  mind  a  conception  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  life  much  larger  than  anything  that 
you  dream  of  among  men,  —  a  life  of  love,  and  pity, 
and  suffering  for  the  sake  of  another. 

And  when  I  think  how  I  have  seen  fathers  suffer  for 
their  children  (I  know  a  father  who  has  gone  through 
a  living  death  for  twenty-five  years,  with  drunken  chil- 
dren, his  substance  wasted,  his  heart  broken,  his  sor- 
rows flowing  like  a  river ;  and  who  suffers  yet,  and 
bears  yet) ;  when  I  see  what  mothers  do  for  their  chil- 
dren, what  anguish  they  endure,  and  with  what  delight 


164  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

they  do  loathsome  things,  how  they  begrudge  to  others 
the  doing  of  the  most  revolting  offices  because  they  love 
their  babes  so  much,  how  they  hold  themselves  aloof 
from  the  pleasures  of  society  because  it  is  so  sweet  to 
them  to  serve  nothingness  with  affection ;  when  I  see 
the  wonder  of  mother-love,  devoting  itself  to  the  child 
that  is  helpless  and  useless,  and  that  lives  almost  only  in 
the  prophecy  of  the  mother's  hope  ;  —  wJien  I  see  these 
manifestations,  I  take  them  up  as  precious  things  from 
heaven,  as  God  incarnated  in  men  who  bear  his  like- 
ness with  them ;  and  out  of  such  materials,  thus  gath- 
ered together,  I  frame  such  a  sense  of  the  real,  ever- 
living  Christ,  that  when  I  go  to  my  people  I  go  to  them 
with  as  much  certainty  as  ever  John  had,  or  as  ever 
came  to  one  of  the  disciples. 

I  know  that  my  Eedeemer  liveth.  I  know  that  the 
conception  which  I  have  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
filling  all  space  and  every  realm,  is  not  a  cunningly 
devised  fable,  is  not  a  fiction,  is  not  a  poem,  but  is  a 
mighty  power. 

THE   SPIRIT   OF  CHRIST,  THE  CENTRAL   SOURCE   OF   POWER. 

This  leads  me  to  the  last  thing  that  I  shall  say  this 
afternoon,  which  is  this  :  I  do  not  believe  that  any  of 
you  are  ever  going  to  preach  Christ  until  you  have 
Christ  formed  in  you.  It  is  this  experimental  knowl- 
edge of  the  Saviour  wrought  into  your  ministration, 
and  brought  to  bear  upon  men  in  a  living  form,  that  is 
needed. 

Is  not  that  the  theory  of  the  Christian  ministry  ? 
Do  you  not  stand  for  Christ,  as  Christ  ?  It  is,  indeed, 
a  thing  to  make  a  man  tremble.     If  men  see  that  you 


THE   M.VIsIFESTATION    OF   GOD   THROUGH   CHPJST.       165 

are  proud ;  that  when  you  are  reviled  you  revile  again  ; 
that  you  are  haughty  and  domineering ;  that  you  lord 
it  over  men ;  that  you  are  willing  to  have  everybody 
honor  and  serve  you ;  that  you  are  very  good-natured 
and  happy  in  your  ministerial  position  when  the  elders 
all  bow  to  you,  and  the  deacons  all  look  up  to  you,  and 
your  people  all  do  just  what  you  want  them  to  ;  that  in 
all  things  you  act  in  accordance  with  the  great  laws 
of  human  nature,  —  if  men  see  these  things,  you  may 
preach  Christ  till  you  are  hoarse  and  you  will  not  make 
them  believe  in  him.  To  talk  about  his  being  divine, 
and  to  talk  about  the  atonement,  is  all  very  well ;  but 
it  is  only  when  Christ  is  in  you,  —  in  your  meekness,  in 
your  long-suffering,  in  your  gentleness,  in  your  return- 
ing good  for  evil,  in  your  praying  for  those  who  de- 
spitefully  use  you  and  persecute  you :  it  is  only  when 
Christ  has  been  so  formed  that  men  see  him  in  you, 
even  though  it  be  only  as  through  a  glass,  darkly,  but  a 
living,  pulsating  life,  so  that  they  can  take  your  example 
and  lift  it,  by  the  power  of  imagination,  into  a  higher 
sphere ;  it  is  only  when,  seeing  your  good  works,  they 
glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  —  it  is  only 
then  that  you  preach  Christ  effectually. 

If  I  were  asked,  "  "WT^iat  is  the  greatest  necessity  of 
the  Christian  ministry  to-day  ? "  I  should  say  that  it 
was  the  power  which  comes  from  Christ-likeness.  And 
in  studying  Christ,  while  the  text  and  the  philosophy 
are  important,  the  spirit  is  a  thousand  times  more  im- 
j^ortant.  Your  whole  Christian  ministry  will  derive 
its  chief  consequence  and  power  from  whatever  of 
Christ  is  in  you,  and  in  you  not  by  thought,  but  by 
disposition  and  life. 


166  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

Young  gentlemen,  the  world  is  passing  fast.  It 
seems  but  yesterday  when  I  thought  I  was  a  young 
man :  to-day  I  am  an  old  man.  It  seems  but  yes- 
terday when  I  thought  I  had  endless  time  before 
me  :  my  work  is  almost  done.  You  are  beginning,  and 
life  is  all  before  you,  with  its  taxations,  with  its  an- 
noyances, with  its  cares.  The  most  important  thing 
you  have  before  you  in  life  is  not  that  you  should  have 
an  eminent  place,  or  a  great  name,  or  large  revenues,  or 
even  success,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  The 
chiefest  thing  tliat  lies  before  you,  which  you  can  con- 
ceive of,  is  that  you  should  ripen  into  the  disposition 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  such  a  way  that  when  you 
come  to  men  it  shall  be  as  if  Christ  came  to  them, 
bringing  his  power,  his  nature,  his  influence,  his  feeling, 
his  life.  You  are  all  running  to  the  Lord,  and  saying, 
"Lord,  grant  that  I  may  sit. on  thy  right  hand  or  on  thy 
left " ;  and  Christ  is  saying  to  you,  "  My  son,  can  you 
drink  of  the  cup  that  I  drink  of  ?  Can  you  be  baptized 
with  the  baptism  that  I  am  baptized  withal  ? "  You 
want  to  be  radiant  ministers,  eloquent  ministers,  minis- 
ters of  great  influence  and  success.  Do  you  want  to 
sit  on  the  Lord's  right  hand  or  on  his  left  ?  Then  give 
him  your  heart,  so  that  in  humility,  in  gentleness,  in 
unfailing  sweetness,  in  patience  under  all  circum- 
stances, you  shall  be  like  him.  In  order  to  be  success- 
ful and  influential  ministers,  are  you  willing  to  bear 
about  with  you  the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  so 
that  his  love  may  be  made  manifest  in  your  heart  ? 
This  it  is  to  preach  Christ,  as  the  wisdom  of  God  and 
the  power  of  God  unto  the  salvation  of  men. 


VII. 


VIEWS   OF  THE  DIVINE  LIFE   IN   HUMAN 

CONDITIONS. 

March  4,  1874. 

>OUNG  gentlemen,  I  do  not  Ivnow  as  I  shall 
succeed  at  all,  this  afternoon,  in  what  I 
wish  to  do.  If  I  do  not,  it  will  not  be  the 
first  time  that  a  good  subject  has  been 
spoiled  in  the  handling,  in  my  ministry.  Now,  every 
effort  that  you  make  to  do  something  that  requires  tact 
and  skill  and  the  various  subtle  combinations  of  mind 
which  are  called  forth  in  preaching,  if  it  throws  you 
back  in  discouragement,  and  causes  you  to  feel  that  it 
is  of  no  use,  it  will  harm  you  ;  but  it  should  not,  for 
no  man  ever  undertook  a  subject  honestly  and  faith- 
fully, and  failed  in  it,  that  he  was  not  better  prepared 
to  succeed  the  next  time.  Some  of  the  best  sermons 
that  you  will  ever  preach,  probably,  will  be  those  which 
are  made  from  abortive  attempts,  broken  up  and  re- . 
modeled  afterwards. 

I  wish  to  speak,  this  afternoon,  of  the  aspects  of  a 
divine  life  in  human  conditions. 

Say  to  any  one  class  of  men,  —  poets,  philosophers, 
or  religionists,  —  "  Draw  out,  if  you  please,  your  con- 


168  LECTUKES  ON  PEE  ACHING. 

ception  of  the  way  in  which  a  perfect  Being,  a  Deity, 
would  conduct  himself  if  he  were  thrown  down  into 
time,  and  amidst  the  temptations  of  physical  law  and 
the  conditions  of  human  life.  Give  this  ideal  picture." 
I  suspect  that  in  no  single  instance  would  men  unen- 
lightened by  the  actual  facts  of  the  New  Testament 
come  within  speaking  distance  of  the  reality ;  and  yet, 
considered  as  an  abstract  proposition,  this  conception 
is  profoundly  interesting  to  a  student,  it  is  still  more 
interesting  to  a  preacher,  and  it  is  indispensable  to 
those  who  would  practically  avail  themselves  of  the 
mission  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

THE   DIVINE   SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS   IN   JESUS. 

Now,  in  the  beginning,  you  must  notice  that  Jesus, 
as  he  came  to  this  world,  —  born  of  a  woman,  being 
successively  a  babe,  a  young  man,  a  working  man,  a 
toiler  among  the  poor  citizens,  himself  a  citizen,  sub- 
ject to  all  the  experiences  that  belong  to  what  may  be 
called  his  strictly  secular  and  early  life,  —  from  our 
first  knowledge  of  him  as  a  thinker  or  an  actor  mani- 
fested the  divine  consciousness.  That  is  to  say,  it  was 
very  plain  that  he  himself  stood  in  the  conditions  of 
this  life  as  one  who  remembered  a  former  existence,  — 
as  one  who  knew  himself  to  be  higher  than  kings  and 
greater  than  lords ;  yea,  that,  without  the  slightest 
apology,  or  any  sense  of  incongruity,  he  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  take  a  higher  place  than  the  prophets,  than  the 
law,  than  the  altar,  than  the  temple,  than  the  whole 
Jewish  economy  ;  and .  not  only  this,  but  that,  though 
in  time-relations  he  spoke  of  himself  as  subordinate  to 
tlie  Father,  yet  in  eternal  relations  he  spoke  of  himself 


THE   DIVINE   LIFE   IN   HUMAN   CONDITIONS.  169 

as  equal  with  the  Father,  and  as  his  companion.  He 
never,  in  a  single  instance,  showed  a  consciousness  of 
limitation,  or  of  imperfection,  or  of  infirmity,  or  of  sin  ; 
he  never  uttered  a  conviction  which  indicated  that  lie 
recognized  anything  less  than  absolute  holiness  in  him- 
self ;  he  always  carried  himself  with  an  easy  and  gentle 
grace,  in  the  consciousness  of  his  perfection,  which  we 
had  almost  said  came  from  life-long  breeding,  but 
which  was  innate,  inborn,  with  him. 

He  teaches  us  to  say,  "  Our  Father " ;  but  he  never 
said  so :  he  always  said,  "  My  Father."  We  are  all 
born  of  men ;  and  yet  he  seeks  out  the  phrase,  "  Son 
of  Man,"  as  something  significant  when  applied  to 
himself  That  phrase  is  not  a  distinctive  title  for  you 
or  for  me,  because  we  are  all  sons  of  men.  Tliere  was 
therefore  an  innate  consciousness,  an  inherent  sense  in 
his  soul,  that  "  Son  of  Man  "  was  a  strange  title  to  call 
him  by,  inasmuch  as  he  was  God's  own  equal ;  and  the 
phrase  has,  under  such  circumstances,  great  power. 

HIS   SOCIAL,   NATIONAL,  AND   PKOFESSIONAL   POSITION. 

We  are  prepared,  then,  starting  from  this  conscious- 
ness of  the  Saviour,  to  ask  how  he  carried  himself  In 
the  first  place  you  must  recollect  that  he  was  not  an 
ordained  minister  at  all.  He  was  a  man  of  the  people  ; 
he  sprang  from  among  them ;  and  that  was  not  strange, 
as  the  Jews  were  democratic  in  tlieir  spirit  and  insti- 
tutions. Having  sprung  from  among  the  people,  he 
never  left  their  ranks.  He  never  went  tln-ougli  the  ap- 
pointed education.  He  had  only  the  education  which 
belonged  to  the  peasantry  among  the  Jews.  There  is, 
at  any  rate,  no  evidence  that  he  had  any  other,  however 


170  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

much  presumption  there  may  be  as  to  the  probability. 
He  never  joined  himself  to  any  of  the  great  sects  or  di- 
visions within  the  one  Jewish  church,  and  he  w^as  never 
sent  forth  by  authority.  He  appeared  just  as  the 
prophets  did.  For  the  Jewish  system  was  remarkable 
in  this :  that  while  the  regulation  worship  was  to  the 
last  degree' precise  and  imperative,  any  men  and  any 
women,  in  the  whole  history  of  the  Jewish  people,  who 
had  primal  inspiration,  were  at  liberty  to  sing,  to  speak, 
to  teach,  or  to  prophesy.  The  Jews  had  the  utmost  re-, 
spect,  therefore,  for  native  genius  and  power.  Among 
the  Jews,  they  who  undertook  to  administer  stated 
affairs  must  do  it  in  stated  ways  ;  but  those  whom  God 
called  outside  of  these  ways  had  liberty  to  exercise 
their  functions  according  to  their  inspiration.  So 
Christ  never  went  out  of  his  position,  as  one  born 
among  the  people  and  a  private  citizen.  He  spoke 
only  because  he  had  whereof  to  speak,  and  somewhat 
to  say. 

All  his  life  long,  then,  he  appeared  not  as  a  profes- 
sional man.  He  w^as  not  in  any  proper  sense  of  the 
term  a  priest.  He  reiDresented  nothing,  he  did  not 
stand  for  anybody,  among  his  people.  He  stood  a 
Voice,  a  Light,  a  living  Soul.  His  was  not  a  person- 
ality of  solitariness,  but  a  personality  separated  from 
official  classes  in  order  that  he  might  always  belong  to 
his  kind.  He  was  not  ordained  out  from  among  the 
connnon  people,  but  he  abided  in  their  midst,  as  it  were 
touching  them,  and  being  near,  therefore,  to  their  per- 
sonal sympathies. 

Then,  he  was  a  man  of  his  own  age,  and  of  his  own 
country,     xilthough  he  was  divine,  and  therefore  was 


THE   DIVINE   LIFE   IN   HUMAN   CONDITIONS.  171 

absolute  and  universal  in  his  knowledge  of  the  truth, 
in  the  higher  range  of  his  consciousness,  nevertheless, 
not  only  did  he  come  from  among  the  common  people, 
but  he  came  from  the  Hebrews ;  he  was  a  Hebrew  of 
the  Hebrews,  and  he  was  true  to  his  lineage.  He  was 
faithful  in  all  respects  to  the  best  things  which  belonged 
to  the  Jewish  national  life. 

There  is  great  significance,  too,  in  this,  if  you  bear  in 
mind  that  it  was  the  divine  consciousness  striving  to 
keep'  close  to  man's  consciousness  ;  that  it  was  the 
divine  heart  held  near  to  the  common  heart,  that  men 
might  receive  light  and  warmth  and  inspiration  from 
God. 

To  a  large  extent  this  was  one  secret  —  not  the  only 
one,  but  one  —  why  the  great  Jewish  common  people 
felt  as  they  did  in  regard  to  Christ.  They  were  proud 
of  him  as  the  ideal,  typical  Jew.  He  represented  to 
them  the  best  things.  He  observed  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath. To  him  the  synagogue  was  not  forbidden 
ground.  He  worshiped  there.  He  conformed  him- 
self to  its  customs.  He  visited  the  temple.  During 
his  active  ministry  he  was  probably  as  regular  in  his 
attendance  at  Jerusalem  as  any  man  in  all  Galilee. 

So  he  observed  the  laws  and  customs  of  his  country, 
and  identified  himself  with  the  people.  He  came  in 
such  a  way  that  they  felt,  "  This  man  is  the  representa- 
tive of  all  of  us";  and  when  they  saw  that  he  had 
miraculous  power,  they  began  to  say,  "  This  is  the  Mes- 
siah ;  he  is  a  Jew  of  great  nature,  great  power,  and 
great  glory ;  and  he  is  to  set  us  free."  And  it  was 
with  disgust  and  reaction  that  they  looked  upon  him 
afterward,  when  he  would  not  use  that  power  to  make 


172  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

himself,  and  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  made,  king. 
It  was  this  fact  that  caused  defection  from  him,  and 
drove  him  out  of  Galilee,  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
where  he  was  transfigured.  It  was  the  high-tide  of  his 
popularity ;  but  it  ebbed  among  the  common  people 
when  they  found  that  this  Jew  would  not  lead  the 
Jews  to  victory. 

One  fact,  however,  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  all  the 
time,  namely,  that  the  conscious  divinity  which  was 
in  Christ  allied  itself  to  nationality,  to  manners  and 
customs,  to  usages,  to  laws,  to  services,  to  everything 
that  should  identify  him  with  his  people. 

HIS   UNIVERSAL   SYMPATHY. 

Then,  again,  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  he  manifest- 
ed a  universal  sympathy  with  men.  I  am  not  speak- 
ing, now,  of  that  kind  of  universal  sympathy  which 
would  remind  you  of  a  cloud  that  moves  over  a  whole 
continent,  and  therefore  is  universal,  raining  alike  on 
everything.  What  I  mean,  distinctly,  is  this  :  that  I 
am  struck,  in  following  the  Saviour  in  his  walk  through 
the  land,  to  see  how  he  treated  alike  every  class,  whether 
civic,  professional,  or  moral,  —  that  is,  how  he  treated 
them  with  sympathy.  The  poor  he  treated  with  rare 
tenderness ;  but  with  not  a  whit  more  tenderness  than 
he  did  the  rich  Pharisees,  who  were  able  to  throw 
open  their  houses  and  invite  him  to  dinner.  He  had  a 
heart  for  rich  men  just  as  much  as  for  poor  men.  He 
walked  with  them  when  it  was  natural  that  he  should. 
He  had  no  prejudice  against  persons  because  they  were 
in  office.  He  was  not  opposed  to  rulers,  to  Pliarisees 
and  Sadducees,  as  such.     If  he  met   them,  and  they 


THE  DIVmE   LIFE   IX   HUMAN   CONDITIONS.  173 

were  right-minded  men,  the  fact  of  their  official  position 
did  not  repel  liim  from  them. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  his  ministry  the  men  who 
were  high  in  station  looked  him  over  to  make  use  of 
him.  They  hoped  that  he  would  be  the  foremost 
Pharisee,  that  he  would  exert  his  power  in  their  behalf, 
and  that  he  would  serve  their  party ;  and  they  became 
antagonistic  to  him  only  when  they  despaired  of  mak- 
ing him  partial,  and  of  shutting  him  up  within  the 
bounds  of  a  party  movement.  To  the  Eoman  centurion 
he  was  kind,  though  the  class  were  foreigners,  and 
hated  by  the  Jewish  people.  He  showed  himself  be- 
nign and  considerate  and  tender  to  the  Syro-Phoeniciau 
woman,  although  he  at  first  tantalized  her,  as  a  means 
of  developing  that  which  was  in  her,  —  for  it  seems  to 
me  that  her  case  was  like  that  where  the  diver  brings 
up  an  oyster  from  the  depths  below.  Rude  and  rough, 
it  is  most  unseemly ;  but  he  knocks  it  and  beats  it 
with  his  knife,  and  finally  inserts  the  blade,  and  cuts 
the  ligament ;  and  behold,  there  is  the  pearl,  which 
never  would  have  been  seen  if  the  oyster  had  not  been 
opened  in  that  way.  So  Christ  opened  men  by  draw- 
ing out  what  was  in  them,  to  reveal  the  exquisite  jew- 
els that  were  hidden  there.  You  never  would  know 
what  a  geode  is  if  you  did  not  crack  it  with  a  hammer. 
When  you  crack  it,  you  find  it  to  be  filled  with  crys- 
tals.    I  wonder  what  the  geode  thinks  about  it ! 

Now,  Christ  went  among  the  rich  and  the  poor  alike. 
And  he  had  compassion  for  all  classes.  His  nature 
was  one  of  universal  sympathy,  such  that  men  felt  tliat 
he  liked  them.  Wherever  he  went  he  j)roduced  that 
impression. 


174  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

Did  you  ever  go  by  a  rose-bush,  in  the  morning 
when  the  dew  was  on  it,  and  it  was  saying  its  prayers  ? 
And  when  its  odor  and  fragrance  came  out  upon  you 
so  fresh  and  so  grateful  that  it  stopped  you  in  your 
course,  or  on  your  errand,  and  you  took  three  or  four 
additional  quaffs,  did  you  ever  do  it  without  feeling, 
"  This  rose-bush  likes  me  "  ?  Did  it  not  bring  to  you  a 
certain  sense  of  the  gift-power  on  the  part  of  the  rose- 
bush, as  if  it  were  conscious  ? 

Wherever  Christ  went  he  exhaled  something.  There 
was  that  in  him  which,  whether  he  went  among  the 
liigh  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  bond  or  free,  good  or  bad, 
publicans  and  harlots  or  Essenes  and  Sadducees  and 
Pharisees,  drew  men  to  him.  He  made  life  sweeter  to 
them.  He  made  them  feel  that  there  was  something 
precious  near  them.  He  woke  them  up  and  stimulated 
them. 

If  this  was  merely  a  great  moral  consciousness  in  the 
world,  it  was  one  thing ;  but  if  it  was  the  Divine  Being 
carrying  himself  in  human  conditions,  it  is  another  and 
very  different  thing,  of  which  I  shall  speak. 

HIS   SUSCEPTIBILITY   TO    PERSONAL   AFFECTION. 

Bear  in  mind,  again,  the  great  susceptibility  which 
was  developed,  in  the  earthly  life  of  our  Lord,  to  the 
sentiment  of  love.  I  discriminate  between  benevolence 
and  love,  the  former  having  reference  to  being,  in  gen- 
eral ;  to  the  universal  capacity  of  experiencing  pleasure 
and  happiness ;  to  a  common  susceptibility  to  beauty 
and  desirableness  :  the  latter  having  a  special  and  indi- 
vidual element. 

Now,  while  Christ  was  compassionate  and  benevo- 


THE   DIVINE   LIFE   IN    HUMAN   CONDITIONS.  175 

lent,  he  had  also  to  a  remarkable  degree  the  faculty  of 
personal  love,  and  of  exciting  in  turn  the  most  enthusi- 
astic affection.  This,  too,  is  to  be  interpreted  from  the 
same  standpoint,  namely,  that  he  walked  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  own  divinity  among  men.  And  yet, 
when  the  young  man  came  to  him,  and  said,  "What 
shall  I  do  that  I  may  inherit  eternal  life?"  he  saw 
that  there  was  that  which  was  rare  and  excellent  in  the 
young  man,  and  he  "  looked  upon  him  and  loved  him." 

Not  simply  was  he  subject  to  those  gradual  yearn- 
ings of  the  heart  which  cautious  men  have  who  watch 
over  against  a  heart  for  six  years,  and  then  try  it,  and 
at  last  come  into  a  kind  of  smoldering  affection  for 
it,  —  not  at  aU.  With  him,  it  was  to  look  and  love. 
He  saw,  and  his  soul  went  out  with  a  gush.  It  is  the 
inspirational  and  spontaneous  carriage  of  his  affections 
that  strikes  me. 

I  take  notice  that  there  were  but  three  of  the  disci- 
ples that  he  specially  loved.  He  loved  them  all ;  Init 
there  were  three  that  he  loved  better  than  the  others, 
—  Peter,  James,  and  John.  You  will  hardly  ever  see 
the  names  of  the  others  mentioned  except  in  an  inven- 
tory of  the  disciples.  These  three  were  generally  with 
him.  They  went  with  him  into  the  mountain,  and  into 
the  chamber  at  Jerusalem;  and  afterwards  they  were 
the  principal  men  who  figured  in  connection  with  him. 
Doubtless  the  others  were  useful  in  their  way :  but 
these  were  evidently  the  men  whom  he  loved.  Proba- 
bly he  loved  them  because  they  deserved  to  be  loved. 

You  will  take  notice  of  another  fact,  —  that  when  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  family  at  Bethany  (the 
time  at  which  this  occurred  we  do  not  know ;  for  we 


176  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

have  only  fragments  of  the  history  of  the  life  of 
Christ ;  there  is  no  continuity  in  it ;  certainly  there  is 
nothing  like  amplitude  in  the  accounts  which  we  have 
concerning  him.  John,  you  know,  said,  "There  are 
also  many  other  things  which  Jesus  did,  the  which,  if 
they  should  be  written  every  one,  I  suppose  that  even 
the  world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books  that  should 
be  written "  —  which  I  do  not  take  to  be  literal,  ex- 
actly, but  which  is  an  Oriental  exaggeration  that  gives 
you  some  conception  of  the  multiplicity  of  events  con- 
nected with  his  life  that  have  not  been  recorded),  —  you 
will  take  notice  that  when  he  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Lazarus  and  Mary  and  Martha,  it  is  declared  that  he 
loved  them;  and  the  kind  of  familiarity  with  which 
Martha  complained  to  him  about  Mary,  saying,  "Do 
not  you  care  that  she  sits,  lazy,  at  your  feet,  while  I 
have  to  go  round  the  house  and  do  the  work  ? "  —  that 
kind  of  familiarity  does  not  spring  out  of  a  casual 
acquaintanceship.  It  comes  from  long  intimacy  and 
great  confidence. 

So,  it  is  plain  that  the  nature  of  Christ  was  one  that 
exercised  and  begot  direct  personal  love.  And  Christ 
was  God.  There  is  great  power  in  this  thought  to  me. 
The  things  that  he  did,  he  did  not  do  because  he  was  a 
man.  Being  God,  and  walking  as  a  man  among  men, 
he  did  these  things ;  and  they  show  how  the  divine 
nature  acted  through  him. 

I  will  challenge  all  human  literature  to  produce  the 
equal  of  the  last  discourses  of  our  Master,  as  they  are 
given  by  John.  He  delivered  them  while  standing 
under  the  very  cope  of  death,  when  he  felt  the  full 
premonition  that  his  time  had  come,  when  he  knew 


THE   DIVIXE   LIFE   IN   HUMAN   CONDITIONS.  177 

what  was  before  him.  In  the  midst  of  *the  whole  round 
and  orb  of  unexampled  and  mysterious  suffering  he  said 
to  his  beloved,  that,  having  loved  them,  he  would  love 
them  unto  the  end. 

Now  read  that  discourse  of  love.  How  deep  it  is ! 
How  high  it  is  !  How  strange  it  would  be,  if  we  had 
not  been  so  familiar  with  it  that  we  walk  over  it  like  a 
dusty  road,  and  tread  it  under  our  feet !  It  is  wonder- 
ful beyond  all  comprehension  that  in  such  an  hour  that 
Heart  of  conscious  Divinity  should  have  burned  so 
toward  these  poor,  ignorant,  fearful,  ambitious,  preju- 
diced disciples,  and  poured  over  them  a  declaration, 
time  and  time  again,  that  might  make  an  angel  trem- 
ble witli  joy.  And  to  say  to  me  that  it  was  a  man 
who  did  it  would  make  him  a  wonderful  man,  —  but  it 
would  spoil  all  my  Bible.  To  teU  me,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  that  was  the  carriage  of  God's  heart,  would 
bring  God  very  near  to  me,  and  open  to  me  the  future 
in  a  way  that  nothing  else  could. 

ATTKACTIVEXESS    OF   CHRIST'S   BEARING. 

]\Iore  than  this,  I  call  you  to  take  notice  of  that  va- 
riety, that  play  of  every  part  and  side  of  the  Divine 
nature  in  Christ,  which  made  him  the  most  attractive 
and  fascinating  man  of  his  time.  I  think  that  the 
attempts  to  make  perfect  men  are  about  the  dreariest 
things  that  take  place  in  fiction  and  biography.  I 
never  saw  one  of  that  class  who  are  called  "perfect 
men  "  that  I  would  not  go  five  miles  across  lots  to  get 
out  of  his  way. 

When  we  undertake  to  make  perfect  moral  men  ac- 
cording to  the  prevailing  idea,  they  are  so  dry,  so  pre- 

8*  L 


178  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

cise,  SO  rigid,  so  afraid  of  evil,  and  so  distrustful  of 
themselves,  that  we  take  pretty  much  all  the  color  out 
of  tlieir  cheek,  and  pretty  much  all  the  throb  out  of 
their  heart,  and  pretty  much  all  the  vim  out  of  their 
hand,  and  pretty  much  all  the  wildness  and  freedom 
out  of  their  foot,  and  leave  them  with  scarcely  any  of 
those  elements  which  make  ,them  agreeable  compan- 
ions in  life.  And  it  is  often  said,  "  That  man  is  spoiled 
by  religion.  He  has  joined  the  church,  and  he  is  not 
anything  like  the  good  fellow  that  he  was  before.  He 
used  to  have  a  free  and  large  nature ;  but  now  he  has 
a  mask  on  his  face,  and  a  corselet  on  his  breast,  and 
greaves  on  his  legs."  People  are  consoled  by  the 
hope  that  the  disclosure  of  his  good  qualities  will  take 
place,  as  I  also  hope  it  will,  in  the  life  that  is  to  come. 

Now,  it  is  an  utter  pity  for  goodness  to  be  made 
poor,  lean,  and  mean.  It  is  a  pity  that  selfishness,  that 
pride,  that  the  intellect,  that  that  which  is  of  this 
world,  should  be  made  more  radiant  and  glorious  than 
those  higher  qualities  which  belong  to  the  Christian 
character.  It  is  a  pity  that  men  should  look  upon 
secular  heroes,  and  say,  as  they  are  often  obliged  to 
say,  "  Well,  if  he  is  a  worldly  man,  he  is  a  royal  fel- 
low. He  is  wrong,  he  is  loose  in  his  habits,  there  are 
many  things  about  him  which  cannot  be  justified ;  but 
he  is  a  first-rate  specimen  of  a  man,  after  all."  And  it 
is  a  pity. 

It  is  a  pity  that  of  men  created  of  God,  and  regener- 
ated by  Divine  grace,  it  should  be  said,  "  They  are  good 
men,  to  be  sure,  but  they  are  so  uninteresting !  Yes, 
they  are  good  men,  but  they  are  a  little  dry.  Yes, 
they  are  good  men,  they  are  conscientious,  but  their 


THE   DIVINE   LIFE   IN   HUMAN    CONDITIONS.  179 

conscience  is  like  a  harness  every  buckle  of  which 
girds  at  each  step.  0  yes,  they  are  good  men  !  So- 
ciety has  to  have  all  sorts  of  men,  and  good  men  fill 
up."  I  always  feel  humiliated  and  ashamed  when  I 
hear  such  talk.  Divine  wisdom,  divine  purity,  divine 
disinterestedness,  divine  integrity,  divine  justice,  yea, 
divine  penalty,  all  of  them  are  heroic ;  and  if  we  could 
but  see  them  as  they  are  seen  above,  they  would  seem 
beautiful  to  us.  There  is  nothing  on  earth  so  beautiful 
as  wisdom,  the  beginning  of  all  beauty ;  there  is  noth- 
ing so  free ;  there  is  nothing  so  large ;  there  is  nothing 
so  attractive ;  there  is  nothing  so  desirable. 

Holding  this  view,  when  I  come  to  read  of  the  earth- 
walking  of  my  God,  —  my  Jesus-God,  —  I  find  that  he 
had  just  that  liberty  and  just  that  spring  which  comes 
from  the  supremacy  of  the  higher  elements  of  tlie  soul. 
He  did  not  go  around  all  the  while  with  his  resolutions 
in  his  hands,  and  with  a  sort  of  half-consciousness  that 
he  was  under  a  necessity  of  being  good.  It  does  me 
good  to  see  that  he  was  grieved.  It  gratifies  me  to 
know  that  he  was  angry  sometimes ;  I  would  not  have 
had  it  otherwise  for  the  world.  A  nature  that  can- 
not be  made  angTy  in  this  world  must  be  a  stagnant 
pool  with  waters  so  thick  that  the  winds  cannot  stir 
them.  I  am  pleased  that  he  Avas  subject  to  moods  that 
came  and  went ;  that  his  mind  experienced  changes ; 
that  he  had  elevations  and  depressions  of  feeling, — 
in  other  words,  that  the  imagination,  the  reasoning,  the 
affections  and  the  moral  sentiments,  and  all  the  appe- 
tites and  passions  in  him,  stood  serving  his  predominant 
feeling  of  love  in  such  ways  that  they  adjusted  them- 
selves to  the  infinite  varieties  of  life. 


180  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

Christ  was  not  a  stiff,  stark  censor,  walking  among 
men  in  such  a  way  that  children  ran  away  from  him. 
He  never  would  have  made  you  think  of  the  ideal  dea- 
con, —  never ! 

Take  a  dramatic  scene.  It  is  the  only  one  that  is 
recorded ;  but  there  were  many  others,  —  I  will  vouch 
for  it. 

On  one  occasion,  when  he  was  talking  to  the  grown 
folks,  such  was  the  influence  which  he  produced  on  the 
j)eople  in  the  crowd,  that  mothers,  with  babes  in  their 
arms,  as  they  stood  listening  to  this  man's  preaching, 
had  an  impulse.  What  was  that  impulse  ?  What  is 
the  impulse  that  people  often  feel  when  they  hear  a 
minister  preach  in  a  church  ?  Anything  but  a  sense 
of  personal  adhesion.  Anything  but  a  desire  to  run  to 
him.  But  when  Christ  was  discoursing,  right  and  left, 
through  the  crowd,  these  mothers,  who  loved  their  chil- 
dren and  who  had  their  world  in  their  arms,  had  this 
impulse :  "  0,  my  boy  would  be  a  better  man  all  his 
life  if  He  would  just  touch  him !"  And  one  said  it  to 
another.  And  they  pressed  themselves  up  to  this  man. 
Such  a  man  he  seemed  to  them,  that  tliey  said,  "  If  he 
will  but  lay  his  hand  on  my  child,  it  will  be  a  priceless 
boon."  But  the  disciples  had  the  old  Jewish  notion  of 
propriety,  and  said  to  these  mothers,  "  Go  away ;  he  is 
talking  to  grown  folks,  not  to  children." 

Well,  now,  there  is  another  feature  connected  with 
that  which  ought  not  to  be  lost  sight  of,  namely,  that 
the  children  did  not  cry  and  run  away  from  Christ,  but 
nestled  right  up  to  him.  This  was  remarkable  ;  for,  as 
you  very  well  know,  children  are  shy  of  strangers,  and 
not  once  in  ten  thousand  times  could  you  take  a  child 


THE   DIVINE   LIFE   IN   HUMAN   CONDITIONS.  181 

into  a  great  noisy,  boisterous  crowd,  and  not  have  it 
frightened  and  restless.  You  know  that  almost  never 
will  a  child  sit  perfectly  still  during  a  discourse.  But 
in  this  case  they  seem  to  have  been  quiet  and  con- 
tented ;  and  we  have  it  recorded  that  Christ  took  them 
up  in  his  arms,  and  laid  his  hands  upon  them  and 
blessed  them.  There  were  those  little  cuddling  chil- 
dren sitting  still  while  he  was  talking ;  and  when  they 
were  brought  to  him  he  lifted  them  up,  and  put  his 
arms  around  them,  and  laid  his  hand  on  their  heads ; 
and  T  do  not  doubt  that  he  kissed  them  every  one. 

This  reveals  two  things,  —  the  effect  that  he  produced 
on  men,  and  his  own  feelings  toward  them.  .  He  was 
divine.  That  was  divinity.  That  is  the  way  the  heart 
of  God  acts.  It  was  let  down  among  you,  and  right 
into  your  conditions,  in  order  that  it  might  act  so  that 
you  could  stand  and  see  it ;  and  so  that  when,  after- 
wards, you  lifted  it  up  into  the  infinite  sphere,  you 
should  lift  up  the  right  thing,  and  lift  it  up  in  right 
directions. 

JESUS   NOT  A   FAULT-FINDER. 

I  might  spend  the  whole  afternoon  in  detailing  in- 
stances of  this  kind :  but  there  is  one  more  point  that 
I  wish  to  speak  of,  namely,  that  this  man,  who  was 
filled  with  divine  consciousness ;  that  this  man,  who 
had  the  very  soul  of  purity  and  sinlessness ;  that  this 
man,  who  came  to  reveal,  as  far  as  the  world  was  pre- 
pared to  receive  them,  the  secrets  of  the  future  spir- 
itual and  eternal  realm ;  that  this  man,  who  was  the 
ruler  of  integrity ;  that  this  man,  who  carried  in  him- 
self the  intensest  sense  of  right,  —  tliat  he  rebuked  and 


182  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

criticised,  and  yet  never  was  querulous,  and  never  was 
fault-finding.  This  is  one  of  the  surprising  things.  I 
have  gone  through  the  four  Gospels  oftener  than  I  have 
gone  through  my  garden,  looking  and  hunting,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  them  (and,  young  gentle- 
men, this  is  not  a  very  hard  way  to  read  the  New 
Testament),  —  I  have  gone  right  straight  through  the 
Gospels  time  and  again,  to  see  what  was  the  mood  of 
Christ's  mind,  and  to  see  what  was  the  manner  in 
which  he  laid  that  mind,  with  rectitude  and  truth  in  it, 
on  the  erring,  wavering,  crude,  nascent  minds  of  the 
men  who  were  about  him ;  and  I  liave  come  back  pro- 
foundly impressed  with  this  feeling :  that  he  was  not 
a  fault-finder,  and  that  he  did  not  go  into  neighbor- 
hoods and  families,  saying,  "  This  is  wrong ;  you  ought 
to  correct  that,"  and  so  on.  He  did  not  do  what  you 
see  many  conscientious  parents  do,  who  are  forever 
saying  to  their  children,  "Take  care,  my  dear;  don't 
do  that ;  keep  away  from  there  ;  you  must  n't  do  so," 
thus  always  holding  them  in  check,  and  giving  them 
forever  a  sense  of  their  imperfection.  He  was  not  like 
the  mother  whose  little  girl,  when  asked  by  her  Sun- 
day-school teacher  what  her  name  was,  said  it  was 
"Emma  Don't."  The  child  had  had  "don't"  said  to 
her  so  much  that  she  supposed  it  was  a  part  of  her 
name ! 

In  reading  the  life  of  Christ  we  derive  from  it,  what  ? 
A  sense  of  the  loftiness  of  his  spirit.  In  following  him 
through  his  career  among  men  on  earth,  what  find  we  ? 
Not  querulousness,  not  complaining ;  but  kindness  and 
love  toward  those  who  were  out  of  the  way.  The  peo- 
ple, in  his  prescribe,  felt  that  they  were  guilty ;  but  it 


THE   DIVINE   LIFE   IN   HUMAN    CONDITIONS.  183 

was  his  nature,  when  walking  among  imperfect  and 
sinful  men,  to  so  carry  himself  toward  them  that  they 
should  feel  the  cordial  of  the  Divine  heart,  and  be  lifted 
up  by  it.     This  I  take  to  be  very  significant. 

THE   PEEACHER   MUST   MAKE   CHRIST   DESIRABLE. 

Now,  then,  my  first  remark,  in  view  of  these  facts, 
or  glances  toward  lines  of  fact,  is  this :  that  whoever 
preaches  Christ  among  men,  and  fails  to  make  him 
the  Chief  among  ten  thousand,  and  altogether  lovely, 
does  not  preach  Christ  as  Christ  preached  himself  It 
does  not  make  any  difference  where  you  put  him  in 
the  moral  government  of  God ;  it  does  not  make  any 
difference  how  much  you  build  texts  lip  about  him  ; 
it  does  not  make  any  difference  how  you  analyze  him ; 
it  does  not  make  any  difference  how  you  incorporate 
him  into  a  philosophical  system ;  whatever  else  you 
do,  your  great  aim  must  be  to  make  him  appear  as  at- 
tractive and  beautiful  in  your  representations  as  he 
was  in  his  own  life.  That  is  the  test.  And  it  is  not 
enough  that  it  should  be  so  once  in  a  while :  such  is 
to  be  the  average  presentation.  For  he  is  the  Hope  of 
the  world ;  and  the  world  is  not  made  up  of  perfect 
men  and  perfect  women.  The  world  does  not  begin  at 
the  upper  sphere.  The  whole  race  is  born  low  ;  every 
generation  commences  at  the  bottom ;  and  what  the 
world  needs  is  something  that  shall  help  them,  that 
shall  encourage  them,  that  shall  lift  them  up.  That 
is  what  Christ  gave,  in  his  mission  upon  earth ;  and 
he  fails  rightly  to  apprehend  the  character  of  Christ, 
and  rightly  to  present  him  to  men,  who  does  not  make 
him  beautiful,  winning,  desired,  and  most  desirable. 


184  LECTUKES   ON   PEEACHING. 

CHRIST'S   LOVE   TO   SINNERS. 

The  next  point  that  I  would  make  is,  that  our  Mas- 
ter produced  the  impression  of  exceeding  loveliness  and 
sympathy  and  yearning,  but  that  he  —  I  hardly  know 
what  term  to  use  ;  condescension  is  not  the  right  word, 
because  it  briugs  in  tlie  idea  of  aristocracy  —  he  did  not 
sit  to  receive  men ;  he  bore  himself  in  on  them.  He 
did  not  allow  himseK  to  be  a  part  of  the  race  in  a 
generic  and  philosophical  sense  alone  :  he  went  out  to 
men.     He  sought  them. 

It  is  one  thing  for  a  man  to  sit  in  state  and  receive 
calls  from  citizens,  and  greet  them  pleasantly  as  they 
come  one  after  another,  and  be  gracious  to  them,  and 
express  a  desire  to  be  better  acquainted  with  them,  and 
listen  courteously  to  what  they  have  to  say,  —  it  is  one 
thing  to  do  this ;  and  it  is  a  very  different  thing  for  a 
man  to  go  about  and  visit  those  citizens  in  their  vari- 
ous spheres  of  life. 

Now,  the  impression  derived  from  reading  the  life  of 
the  Saviour  is  this :  that  he  took  himself  to  men ;  in 
other  words,  that  he  came  down  and  joined  himself  to 
their  want  and  to  their  weakness.  The  point  of  union 
between  conscious  divinity  and  the  lowest  imperfection 
is,  that  it  is  the  nature  of  the  Divine  to  unite  itself  to 
weakness  in  order  to  medicate  it,  and  inspire  it  with 
strength  to  raise  itself  up. 

Ah,  if  I  had  known  this  in  early  life,  what  years 
of  struggle,  and  at  times  of  anguish,  I  might  liave  been 
saved  !  But  I  thought  of  Christ  as  standing  beyond 
and  above  my  reach ;  and  I  supposed  that  I  could  have 
the  comfort  and  the  blessedness  of  his  fellowship  only 


THE  DIVINE   LIFE   IN   HUMAN   CONDITIONS.  185 

when  I  had  complied  with  certain  conditions ;  and  I 
spent  years  and  years  in  trying  to  comply  with  those 
conditions,  in  order  that  I  might  come  into  intimate 
relations  with  him.  But  if  I  had  known  that  it  was  his 
nature  to  come  right  to  me,  and  that  already  he  was 
mine,  and  mine  not  because  I  had  been  awakened,  and 
had  repented,  and  had  entered  upon  a  certain  course, 
but  because  I  was  poor,  and  needed  him,  that  would 
have  sustained  me.  To  be  Divine  is  to  take  care  of  the 
poor  and  needy  and  sinful :  and  if  I  had  known  that 
Christ  was  mine  because  I  was  poor  and  needy  and 
sinful ;  if  I  had  known  that  it  was  the  Divine  nature  to 
love,  and  to  love  those  who  were  degraded  and  unfor- 
tunate and  in  trouble ;  if  I  had  known  that  I  had  my 
Christ  to  begin  with,  what  an  encouragement  it  would 
have  been  to  me !  If  I  had  known  that  it  was  the 
essential  nature  of  God  to  succor  the  oppressed,  to 
make  himself  a  ransom  for  those  who  were  in  bondage, 
to  bring  them  out  of  that  bondage,  and  to  break  up 
the  habits  and  destroy  the  evil  forces  which  were  in 
them  and  about  them,  by  a  celestial  inspiration  of  his 
own  heart  which  should  enable  them  to  become  the 
sons  of  God,  I  should  have  been  spared  much  solici- 
tude and  pain.  The  thought  that  he  lets  himself  down, 
and  takes  hold  of  the  human  race  as  they  are,  is  most 
encouraging.  It  is  divinity  to  do  that.  In  all  the  ele- 
ments of  the  universe  there  is  nothing  so  curative, 
nothing  so  lenient,  nothing  so  patient,  nothing  so 
sweet,  nothing  so  gentle,  nothing  so  considerate,  and 
nothing  so  adaptable,  as  the  Divine  nature.  There  is 
nothing  that  goes  down  to  the  infinitesimal  want  like 
that  Divine  love  which  is  supreme. 


186  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

O,  take  away  my  Jehovah,  but  do  not  take  away 
my  Jesus  !  When  I  behold  the  God  that  sits  back 
of  universal  thought,  and  back  of  immediate  power, 
that  reigns  in  the  vacuity  and  vastness  of  eternity,  I 
behold  One  who  is  most  venerable  and  admirable,  and 
it  makes  me  shudder  and  tremble ;  and  the  more  I 
look  at  it  the  worse  it  is  :  but  let  me  look  at  One  who 
loves  the  poor,  and  is  sympathetic  toward  them,  and 
is  able  and  stands  ready  to  do  in  my  innermost  soul 
what  my  mother  did  for  me,  waiting  until  I  had  grown 
out  of  childhood,  and  helping  me  all  the  time,  —  let  me 
look  at  such  a  One,  and  think  that  he  is  patient  with 
men  while  they  are  being  developed  from  weakness  to 
strength,  and  I  feel  drawn  to  him.  Give  me  that  view 
of  Clnist,  and  I  am  strong  for  myself,  not  only,  but  I 
have  strength  by  which  to  go  forth  and  preach  Christ 
to  my  fellow-men. 

A  speculative  Christ  you  will  have  to  preach,  many 
times ;  you  will  have  to  preach  a  doctrinal  Christ ; 
and  his  governmental  relations  to  men  you  will  have  to 
preach ;  but  the  mainstay  and  power  of  your  ministry 
must  be  in  this  :  the  j^reaching  of  Christ  as  the  Lover  of 
sinners.  God  so  loved  mankind  that  he  gave  his  Son 
to  die  for  them.  He  loved  them  before  they  had  shown 
repentance  or  reformation ;  he  loved  them  while  yet 
tliey  were  at  enmity  to  him;  and  he  gave  them  the 
best  gift  that  he  had  to  give. 

PREACHING  MUST  BE  ENFORCED  BY  PRACTICE. 

So,  then,  once  more,  in  preaching  this  Christ,  the  fact 
must  come  out  —  it  ought  to  come  out,  at  any  rate  — 
that  the  identification  between  Christ  and  the  truth  is 


THE   DIVINE   LIFE   IN    HUMAN    CONDITIONS.  187 

to  have  an  answering  element  in  you.  Christ  said, 
"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  lahor  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you,  and 
learn  of  me  ;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart."  It  is 
as  if  he  had  said,  "  I  am  the  exemplification  of  my  own 
teaching.  Do  I  talk  to  you  about  meekness  ?  Look 
at  me  and  see  what  I  mean.  Do  I  talk  to  you  about 
love  ?  Look  at  me  and  see  what  I  mean.  Do  I  talk  to 
you  about  giving  your  life  for  those  who  are  around 
about  you  ?  Look  at  me  and  see  how  I  am  doing  it. 
Do  I  talk  to  you  about  being  patient  under  provoca- 
tions ?  See  how  I  act  under  provocations."  He  car- 
ried in  himself  his  creed,  and  said  to  men,  "  Learn  of 
me." 

Now,  in  your  ministry  you  are  to  reproduce  that 
which  you  desire  to  impress  upon  men ;  and  you  can 
never  reproduce  the  heart  by  the  head  :  you  can  never 
reproduce  a  spiritual  truth  by  a  philosophical  idea. 
You  must  arouse  the  higher  life  of  men  by  exhibitino' 
to  them  the  thing  itself  which  you  are  aiming  to  de- 
velop in  them.  Christ  preached,  being  himself  a  rep- 
resentation of  humility  and  gentleness  and  meekness 
and  disinterestedness  and  love ;  and  you  are  to  follow 
his  example  in  this  regard.  You  will  not  preach  effec- 
tually either  in  the  pulpit  or  in  the  pew  until  you  can 
show  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit.  When  you  can  do  that, 
you  will  preach  to  some  purpose. 

I  think  that  if  there  were  a  church  of  two  hundred 
men  and  women  on  the  globe,  who  were  united  in  the 
enthusiasm  of  their  higher  moral  feelings,  they  would 
make  their  way  in  the  world  like  an  army  with  ban- 
ners.    The  reason  why  churches  are  so  defective,  and 


188  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

why  their  po^A^er  is  so  limited,  is  the  want  of  that  con- 
tagious enthusiasm  of  soul  which  they  need  to  enable 
them  to  resist  every  temptation,  to  abide  in  the  spirit 
of  love,  to  overcome  evil  in  every  form,  to  endure  trial 
whenever  it  shall  overtake  them,  —  in  short,  to  be  like 
the  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Put  into  the 
various  relations  of  life  one  or  two  hundred  persons 
whose  life  should  be  exactly  conformed  to  the  exam- 
ple and  teaching  of  the  Saviour,  and  sooner  could  men 
stand  before  the  compound  blow-pipe  than  they  could 
stand  before  such  a  living  exemplification  of  the  gos- 
pel as  it  is  laid  down  in  the  New  Testament.  What  we 
lack  is  not  theology  ;  simply  to  live  upon  that  would 
be  like  gnawing  a  bone :  what  we  want  is  life,  —  U/g, 
—  LIFE  ! 

THE   TRAITS    OF   JESUS   EXPANDED   TO   INFINITY. 

I  had  occasion  to  say,  in  a  former  lecture,  that  you 
must  beware  of  locating  your  present  Christ  in  old 
Jerusalem.  Now  you  see  how  it  is,  that  when  you 
wish  to  carry  the  thoughts  of  your  people  to  the  ever- 
living  Christ,  you  are  to  do  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  de- 
velop a  sense  of  his  loving  and  forgiving  nature.  He 
is  not  different  in  heaven  from  what  he  was  on  earth, 
except  in  method.  You  know  not  how  spirits  live  ; 
you  know  not  the  conditions  of  spirit-life  ;  but  you 
know  that  every  one  of  those  truths  which  he  showed 
on  earth  he  showed  under  great  disadvantage.  You 
know  that  on  earth  he  was  limited  and  restricted  ;  and 
if,  under  such  circumstances,  he  pitied  men,  how  is  it 
in  heaven  ?  He  has  not  lost  the  quality  of  pity  there, 
but  it  has 'taken  on  greater  power  and  scope  and  re- 


THE   DIVINE    LIFE   IX   HUMAN   CONDITIONS.  189 

source.  Did  he  have  disinterested  love  upon  earth  ? 
Then  in  his  heavenly  estate  it  is  expanded  boundlessly. 
Did  he  on  earth  give  himself  that  others  might  not 
perish,  or  suffer  ?  That  he  is  doing  in  heaven  to-day, 
including  in  his  mercy  all  intelligent  beings  in  the  uni- 
verse. 

There  is  no  one  who  carries  so  many  burdens  as  God 
manifest  in  Christ.  There  is  no  one  that  carries  so 
much  sympathy  and  so  much  succor  as  he.  There  is 
no  one  who,  like  him,  bears  the  wants  of  the  race,  as  a 
father  and  a  mother  bear  the  necessities  of  their  much- 
loved  children,  doing  more  for  those  that  are  threat- 
ening to  break  away  and  go  loose  than  for  those  that 
are  obedient  and  virtuous.  He  is  one  who  said  there 
should  be  "joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  that  repent- 
eth,  more  than  over  ninety  and  nine  just  persons  which 
need  no  repentance." 

This  is  Jesus  transferred,  in  our  thoughts,  to  the 
infinite  sphere.  And  when  you  represent  to  your 
people  God's  heart  in  the  heavenly  land,  make  it  up 
of  elements  which  were  manifest  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  on  earth.  The  true  use  of  those  elements  is  to 
mold  them  together,  exalt  them  to  the  upper  sphere, 
and  then  direct  your  people  from  the  letter  to  the 
spirit.  And  by  and  by,  as  your  hearers  more  and  more 
follow  this  glorified  conception,  there  will  be  a  likeness 
in  them  to  the  Master ;  and  they  shall  grow  more  and 
more  radiant,  more  and  more  like  him,  more  and  more 
joyful,  until  he  shall  come  for  them. 

THE   preacher's   REWARD. 

And,   young  gentlemen,   it  matters   but  very  little 


190  LECTUEES   ON   PREACHING. 

what  titles  you  get  here,  what  emoluments,  what  confi- 
dence, and  what  pleasure ;  for  when  you  shall  stand 
at  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  in  the  gateway  of  heaven, 
saying  to  him,  "  Here  am  I,  and  these  whom  I  have 
brought,"  one  greeting,  one  look,  from  him  will  repay 
you  for  every  groan,  for  every  sorrow,  for  every  sadness, 
and  for  all  the  waiting  that  you  ever  knew  upon  earth. 
You  are  sons  of  God  walking  in  disguise.  What  you 
do  now  you  know  not. 

I  can  conceive,  since  the  extension  of  the  use  of  elec- 
tricity, of  a  man,  some  old  Beethoven,  deaf,  sitting  in 
his  room  and  playing  on  an  instrument  half  a  mile 
away,  by  means  of  wires  connecting  that  instrument 
with  the  keys  that  are  under  his  liand.  I  can  imagine 
how,  as  he  rolled  off  wonderful  strains  of  music  which 
he  could  not  hear,  an  audience,  unbeknown  to  him, 
might  be  gathered  about  that  far-off  instrument,  listen- 
ing, music-struck. 

In  this  world  you  are  playing  on  keys  whose  re- 
sponse is  in  the  heavenly  land,  where  you  cannot  hear, 
but  angels  listen  to  it ;  and  when  yovi  return  and  come 
to  Zion  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  your 
heads,  you  will  be  among  the  happiest  of  all  that  have 
lived  upon  earth,  —  kings  and  priests  unto  God. 


VIII. 


SINS  AND   SINFULNESS. 

Marcli  15,  1874. 

SOMEWHAT   fear,   this   afternoon,   that   I 


shall  render  myself  liable  to  misapprehen- 
sion, —  a  thing  so  rare  that  I  might  venture 
upon  it  as  a  luxury,  perhaps,  if  it  were  not 
for  the  importance  of  the  theme  which  I  purpose  to 
discuss,  namely,  the  subject  of  Sins  and  Sinfulness. 

HUMAN    SINFULNESS   A   FUNDAMENTAL   FACT. 

I  suppose  I  have  as  deep  a  personal  consciousness, 
and  as  strong  and  abiding  a  sense  of  the  sinfulness 
of  the  race,  and  of  the  indispensable  need  of  Divine 
interposition  in  behalf  of  men  on  account  of  sin,  as 
any  man  with  my  faculties  could  have ;  and,  therefore, 
in  the  course  of  my  statements,  I  must  not  be  under- 
stood either  as  lowering  the  importance,  or  as  in  any 
way  doing  away  with  the  fact,  of  that  doctrine,  which 
underlies  theology.  For,  although  the  grand  architec- 
tural facts  of  scientific  theology  are  the  existence,  the 
will,  and  tlie  government  of  God,  yet  the  fundamental 
fact  is  the  sinfulness  of  man.  That  fact  is  to  theology 
what  disease  is  to  medicine.     Unless  there  were  dis- 


192  LECTUKES  ON  PEEACHING. 

eases,  there  could  be  no  science  of  medicine.  There 
might  be  a  science  of  hygiene,  but  there  could  be  none 
of  remedy;  and  unless  there  were  sinfulness  in  man, 
there  could  be  no  doctrine  of  repentance,  of  new  birth, 
of  atonement,  or  of  Divine  inspiration  and  recuperative 
power,  —  in  short,  almost  nothing  would  be  left. 

THE   SCRIPTUKAL  versuS   THE   SCHOLASTIC   MODE   OF 
DISCUSSING   IT. 

And  yet  it  is  remarkable  that  our  ideas  of  sin,  for 
the  most  part,  have  come  to  us  neither  from  the  Gos- 
pel nor  from  an  original  observation  of  facts  as  they 
are,  —  that  is  to  say,  neither  from  the  authority  of 
Christ  nor  from  scientific  induction.  The  questions  as 
they  have  been  mostly  discussed  have  come  down  to 
us  from  the  schools.  They  may  be  none  the  better 
and  none  the  worse  for  that ;  but,  as  a  mere  matter  of 
fact,  to  a  large  extent  the  questions  which  have  con- 
cerned the  minds  of  thinkers  in  theology,  and  which 
run  through  all  my  remembrance  as  I  was  trained  to 
discussion  in  the  seminary,  and  which  were  supposed 
to  have  a  most  important  relation  to  the  right  found- 
ing of  Christian  ministers,  are  questions  which  we 
have  derived  from  the  philosoj)hy  of  the  schools. 

Christ  never,  in  a  single  instance  that  I  can  discover, 
defined  the  nature  of  sin.  Nor  can  I  find  a  single 
instance  in  which  he  declared  that  the  race  were  uni- 
versally sinful.  That  form  of  statement,  which  is  so 
common  with  us  as  to  be  supposed  to  be  Scriptural,  is 
not  found  in  the  teaching  of  the  Saviour,  at  any  rate, 
whatever  may  be  the  case  in  respect  to  the  Apostles. 
I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  there  is  no  hint,  that  we 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  193 

ought  not  to  find  it  out,  and  that  there  may  not  be  a 
very  powerful  influence  exerted  by  philosophical  in- 
quisition :  I  merely  say  that  such  is  not  the  way  in 
which  Christ  preached.  He  did  not  preach  universal 
sinfidness:  he  preached  about  sins.  He  did  not  preach 
the  abstract  philosophy  of  wrong-doing  :  far  more  ;  as- 
suming universal  wrong-doing,  he  dwelt  on  the  ele- 
ments of  recovery,  and  of  the  power  of  repentance,  of 
the  new  life,  and  of  Divine  succor.  He  continually 
pointed  out  to  men,  and  to  each  kind  of  men  as  he  met 
them,  their  special  sins.  He  did  not  say,  "  Your  nature 
is  depraved";  he  said,  "Go,  sell  all  that  thou  hast: 
come,  follow  me,  and  great  shall  be  thy  reward  in 
heaven." 

Now,  when  a  man  loves  money,  it  seems  rather  hard 
to  tell  him  to  give  away  all  that  he  has,  and  he  sliall 
be  paid  up  in  heaven ;  the  time  to  wait  is  so  long ! 
But  the  keynote  of  that  man's  life  was  struck ;  and  he 
went  away  convicted,  probably,  ten  thousand  times 
more  than  he  would  have  been  if  the  philosophical 
and  general  doctrine  of  sinfulness,  which  included  him, 
had  been  taught  to  him.  For  it  may  be  laid  down  as 
very  certain  that  anything  which  is  predicated  of  the 
whole  race,  and  which  belongs  to  any  individual  man 
in  common  with  the  whole  race,  will  not  very  much 
disturb  him ;  if  there  is  to  be  that  which  shall  disturb 
him,  it  must  be  something  which  is  personal  to  him, 
which  is  peculiar  to  him,  which  singles  him  out,  and 
which  makes  him  ashamed  and  sorry  for  himself; 
whereas,  things  that  unite  him  to  all  his  race  in  very 
many  ways  take  off  the  edge  of  consciousness,  and 
abate  self-condemnatory  judgments. 


194  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

Nevertheless,  in  theology  we  find  generic  questions 
rather  than  specific ;  or,  that  which  is  specific  is  re- 
mitted to  the  sphere  of  ethics  or  morality. 

More  than  that,  there  has  grown  up,  as  distinguished 
from  the  doctrinal  preaching  of  sin  generically,  a  kind 
of  contempt  for  preaching  against  specialties,  as  if 
that  was  superficial ;  as  if  it  belonged  rather  to  the 
dei)artnient  of  morals ;  as  if  to  preach  on  sms  was  not 
nearly  so  efficacious  as  to  preach  on  sinfulness;  and  so 
the  general  disposition  has  been  greatly  insisted  upon, 
while  specific  issues  have  not  been  made  so  much  of. 

THE   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL. 

First  comes  the  question  of  questions,  —  that  of  the 
origin  of  evil ;  and  if  all  the  books,  all  the  tracts,  all 
the  pamphlets,  all  the  sermons,  and  all  the  articles 
which  have  been  written  on  that  subject  were  gath- 
ered together,  and  heaped  up,  not  the  pyramids  of 
Egypt  would  be  so  large  as  the  pile  which  they  would 
make ;  and  if  all  the  passions  which  have  been  excited 
in  the  discussion  one  against  another  were  concentra- 
ted, there  would  be  fire  enough  to  burn  them  all  to  ashes. 

As  to  the  origin  of  evil,  this  is  to  be  said :  We  know 
just  as  much  about  it  as  our  fathers  did,  and  not  a  bit 
more ;  they  knew  as  much  about  it  as  we  do,  and  not 
a  bit  more ;  and  neither  did  they  nor  do  we  know  any- 
thing about  it. 

Suppose  the  schools  of  medicine,  instead  'of  discuss- 
ing the  structure  of  man,  instead  of  investigating  his 
organization,  instead  of  acquainting  themselves  with 
the  nervous  system,  the  venous  system,  the  arterial 
system,  the  nuiscular  system,  instead  of  inquiring  into 


SINS  AND   SINFULNESS.  195 

the  wholesome  conditions,  the  morbid  conditions,  and 
the  remedial  conditions  of  the  body,  —  suppose  that, 
instead  of  doing  these  things,  they  (the  Homoeopaths, 
the  Allopaths,  and  the  others)  should  quarrel  as  to  the 
origin  of  disease,  as  to  how  it  came  into  the  world,  as 
to  who  was  sick  first,  and  as  to  why  that  person  was 
sick?  That  would  be  no  more  a  waste  of  time  and 
brains  than,  in  considering  the  interior  or  spiritual 
structure  of  man,  to  burrow  after  the  origin  of  evil, 
and  follow  up  the  questions  which  spring  out  of  this 
one,  going  back  and  asking,  "  Why  did  God  make  the 
world  as  he  did  ?  Why  did  he  not  make  it  in  some 
other  way  ? " 

THE   NATURE   OF   SIN. 

Then  comes  another  discussion,  which  I  do  not  say 
is  unimportant,  though  I  do  say  it  has  relation  to  a 
side  of  your  work  other  than  that  of  preaching, — 
namely,  the  discussion,  in  certain  stages  of  the  devel- 
opment of  the  theological  system,  of  the  question  as  to 
the  nature  of  sin.  The  question  is  asked :  "  Is  it  phys- 
ical and  inherent,  so  that  a  man  is  born  into  this 
world  with  a  sinful  nature,  that  in  some  way  comes 
down  to  him  from  his  father,  as  scrofula  or  a  tendency 
to  gout,  or  anything  of  that  kind,  often  does  ?  Is  sin 
a  kind  of  physical  secretion  ? "  This  view  is  scarcely 
held  now ;  but  there  has  been  a  wordy  war  on  that 
subject.  Much  time  has  been  spent  by  men  in  dis- 
cussing the  nature  of  sin  as  a  physical  secretion. 

Then  there  is  tlie  question  as  to  whether  it  is  a 
moral  secretion ;  as  to  whether  a  man  has  a  sinful 
nature ;  as  to  whether  a  man  intellectually  and  mor- 


196  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

ally  is  sinful,  in  such  a  sense  that  the  moment  he  be- 
gins to  act  he  begins  to  do  wrong ;  so  that  the  very- 
first  throb  of  his  being  is  positively  evil,  unconscious, 
hereditary,  and  inevitable. 

Of  course,  if  a  man  is  thrust  into  the  world  with  a 
nature  which  is  born  to  strike,  he  is  no  more  responsi- 
ble for  striking  than  a  clock  is,  being  made  to  strike. 

Yet  the  theory  of  the  inherent  necessity  of  sin  is  at 
times  taught  with  a  vigor  that  would  lead  one  almost 
to  suppose  that  a  man  would  sin  if  he  did  not  sin,  as 
defeating  the  end  for  which  he  was  created ! 

Then  comes  the  question,  still  more  important,  or 
rather  still  nearer  to  touching  bottom,  as  to  whether 
sin  is  personal,  voluntary,  and  yet  flowing  from  an 
original  fountain  of  sin,  —  in  other  words,  as  to  whetlier 
Adam  was  the  reservoir  and  we  are  the  faucets.  I  do 
not  undertake  to  say  anything  on  that  subject.  I  am 
not  in  the  chair  of  didactic  theology.  I  may  simply 
say  that  I  do  not  think  it  is  profitable  to  present  that 
view  in  preaching,  as  a  means  of  awakening  men,  or  of 
leading  them  to  conversion.  I  do  not  think  that  its 
effect  upon  the  understanding,  upon  the  imagination,  or 
upon  the  heart  is  likely  to  be  edifying. 

THE   DOCTRINE    OF    TOTAL    DEPRAVITY. 

Then,  sin  is  defined  in  all  sorts  of  wa3^s,  as  if  it  were 
a  very  desirable  thing  to  get  a  generic  and  comprehen- 
sive term  for  it.  It  is  defined  by  afiirmatives,  the  law 
of  selfishness  being  represented  as  predominating  in 
men ;  or  it  is  defined  by  negatives,  representing  that 
there  is  an  entire  absence  in  men  of  love  to  God  and 
of  a  sense  of  God. 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  197 

Now,  in  connection  with  that,  comes  a  mode  of  dis- 
cussing sin  whicli  I  suppose  does  not  prevail  in  our 
day  as  much  as  it  formerly  did.  (I  say  /  suppose,  be- 
cause, although  1  believe  in  going  to  meeting,  I  myself 
almost  never  hear  sermons  preached.  I  cannot,  there- 
fore, judge  of  what  the  preaching  is  in  the  majority  of 
churches.)  I  allude  to  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity, 
as  it  used  to  be  preached.  I  hold,  not  that  every  man 
is  responsible  for  the  statement  of  a  doctrine  which 
can  be  defended  according  to  an  obscure  or  abstract 
system,  but  that  every  man  shall  preach  any  doctrine 
that  he  preaches  at  all,  so  that  it  shall  defend  itscJf  in 
the  court  of  judgment  of  the  men  to  whom  he  preaches. 
I  liold  that  to  preach  the  truth  in  such  a  way  as  to 
cast  the  shadow  of  a  lie  upon  the  minds  of  men,  is  to 
mis-preach. 

If  you  say  that  men  are  born  imperfect,  and  that 
therefore  not  a  single  man  answers  the  end,  or  fulfills 
the  destiny,  for  wliich  he  was  created ;  if  you  say  that 
men  are  so  created  that  the  recuperative  power  is 
in  God,  and  not  in  them ;  if  you  say  that,  in  the  very 
nature  of  things,  men,  partially  sinful,  are  every  one 
of  them  in  need  of  the  new  birth ;  if  you  say  that 
human  nature  is  such  that,  first  or  last,  the  moral 
sense,  the  reason,  the  social  affections,  and  every  ap- 
petite and  passion  have  sinned  in  their  turn,  and  do 
sin,  —  if  you  make  a  statement  like  that,  I  suppose 
no  person  Mdll  object  to  it :  but  if  you  make  a  general 
statement,  to  the  effect  that  men  are  totally  depraved, 
you  will  be  misunderstood ;  you  will  run  the  risk  of 
confounding  together  all  grades  of  right  or  wrong, 
and  of  almost  effacing  the  distinctions  between  good 


198  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

men  and  bad  men,  or  between  men  that  are  relatively 
good  and  men  that  are  relatively  bad ;  and,  what  is 
more  than  all,  you  will  run  the  risk  of  violating  the 
moral  consciousness  of  men ;  —  they  know  that,  as  thus 
broadly  put,  it  is  simply  not  true. 

You  can  never  make  a  mother,  who,  with  devoted 
love,  is  giving  up  night  and  day  for  her  babe,  repent  of 
that  love,  and  look  upon  it  as  if  it  were  an  evidence 
of  her  total  depravity.  You  can  never  make  a  friend 
who  ventures  his  life  for  another  friend,  without  second 
thought  and  without  recompense,  turn  about  and  write 
down  that  act  in  his  journal  as  being  an  evolution  of 
total  depravity. 

My  father  used  to  say  to  me  in  regard  to  the  better 
impulses  of  men  who  are  unregenerated,  "  My  son, 
those  are  nat'ral  affections.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
a  good  act  unless  it  comes  from  gracious  affections.  It 
is  not  until  an  act  is  inspired  and  qualified  by  the 
Divine  Spirit  that  it  becomes  good." 

Well,  I  can  say  that  as  much  as  he  said  it ;  but  I 
hold  also  that  the  Divine  Spirit  is  universal.  I  hold 
that  the  physical  man  finds  sufficient  development  and 
stimulus  in  the  physical  globe  that  is  around  about 
him ;  that  tlie  social  man  finds  motives  and  stimulants 
enough  in  his  social  relationship ;  that  the  moral  and 
spiritual  man  derives  peculiar  and  special  stimuli  from 
the  Divine  Soul,  wliich  overhangs  all  things,  and  is 
dealing  with  all  things ;  that  that  part  of  our  nature 
which  is  essentially  spiritual  always  comes  from  the 
inoculation  of  our  souls  by  the  Divine  Soul ;  and  that 
all  of  that  in  us  which  is  good  is  as  directly  the  fruit 
of  the  Divine  Spirit,  as  all  that  is  beautiful  and  fertile 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  199 

in  the  fields  is  the  fruit  of  the  sun  that  shines  upon  it. 
Without  summer  there  can  be  no  harvest ;  and  without 
the  sun  there  can  be  n(J  summer.  The  distinction 
which  my  father  drew  between  natural  and  divine 
fruits  of  the  Spirit  in  the  soul  was  not  well  founded 
under  such  circumstances. 

You  will  ask  me,  "  Do  you  not  believe  that  all  men 
are  sinful  ?  "  I  do.  "  Do  you  think  that  there  is  any 
action  of  a  man's  heart  that  is  perfect  ? "  Eelatively, 
no,  I  do  not.  "  Do  you  believe  that  men  are  totally 
depraved  ? "  I  believe  that  men  are  sinful,  and  that 
they  sin  continually,  to  such  an  extent  that  they  need 
repentance,  change  of  heart.  Divine  help,  so  as  to  be- 
come new  creatures  in  Christ  Jesus.  I  believe  in  their 
need.  But  I  do  not  undertake,  with  my  plummet,  to 
sound  their  depths,  and  to  say  that  men  are  totally 
depraved,  —  that  is,  that  each  particular  faculty  has 
qualities  which  carry  it  out  of  such  and  such  and  such 
assignable  limits. 

THE  ERKOR  OF  THE  UNITARIAN  DOCTRINE. 

There  are  advantages  which  come  from  a  wise  gen- 
eralization on  the  subject  of  sinfulness ;  but  there  is 
much  mischief  in  the  generalization  which  has  come 
down  to  us  on  that  subject.  We  live  in  an  age  in 
which  there  is  progress  in  various  departments  of 
knowledge,  and  in  which  men  are  looking  at  things 
from  a  different  standpoint  and  with  adaptations  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  other  times,  which  have  largely 
lost  their  force  now;  a  powerful  reaction  has  been 
taking  place.  There  are  two  elements  coming  in.  The 
first  is  that  reaction  which  assumes  —  I  think  unwisely. 


200  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

and  without  proper  observation  —  that  men,  so  far  from 
being  sinful,  only  sin  once  in  a  while,  just  enough  for 
variety;  and  that  when  placed  in  favorable  circum- 
stances men  prefer  to  do  right,  and  do  do  right.  This 
is  what  is  supposed  to  be  the  peculiar  heresy  of  the 
Unitarian  defection,  though  it  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  Trinity  or  with  the  Atonement.  In  point  of  fact,  that 
development  carries  with  it  a  denial  of  the  fundamental 
sinfulness  of  human  life,  and  teaches  that  the  qualities 
of  a  man's  mind  are  essentially  virtuous,  and  that  when 
circumstances  favor,  for  the  most  part  the  actions  of 
men  are  right ;  thus,  invariably  and  inevitably  decreas- 
ing in  men  moral  depth,  the  sense  of  the  Divine  nature, 
and  intense  spirituality,  for  which  is  substituted  that 
poetic  or  mystic  sensibility  which  has  characterized  all 
those  sects  that  hold  a  loose  doctrine  on  the  subject  of 
men's  sinfulness. 

Now,  there  is  to  this  extent  some  truth  in  that  view, 
—  namely,  that  the  faculties  of  men  are  by  nature  set 
to  do  right  things.  Anger  is,  in  and  of  itself,  both 
right  and  necessary.  In  and  of  themselves  combative- 
ness,  and  destructiveness,  and  self-esteem,  and  love  of 
praise,  and  love  between  man  and  man,  and  benevo- 
lence, and  the  sense  of  beauty  and  taste,  —  these  are 
intrinsically  right ;  and  single  actions  proceeding  from 
these  are  right :  but  that  is  not  their  statement.  Men 
are  building  in  this  life ;  we  are  rearing  up  our  person- 
ality, and  the  question  is  not  so  much  whether  the 
original  faculties  in  their  innermost  nature  are  right  or 
not :  the  question  is,  When  men  are  building  a  character 
through  the  action  of  these  multiplex  faculties,  do  they 
use  them  so  that  from  day  to  day,  and  from  week  to 


SINS  AND   SINFULNESS.  201 

week,  and  from  month  to  month,  and  from  5^ear  to 
year,  they  are  working  out  excellences  of  holiness  ? 

A  man,  for  example,  takes  his  palette  to  paint.  His 
colors  are  all  right,  they  are  broken  right,  and  they  are 
mixed  right ;  but  when  he  begins  to  make  his  picture, 
and  put  in  his  tints,  and  produce  effects  of  light  and 
shade,  he  may  fail  utterly.  The  instruments  with 
which  he  works  are  right,  there  is  not  one  of  the  pig- 
ments that  is  not  perfect,  and  he  puts  them  on  with 
dextrous  strokes;  but  when  he  combines  them,  and 
makes  the  foreground,  the  middle-ground,  and  the  dis- 
tance, and  puts  his  objects  of  life  into  the  picture,  it  is 
a  botch.  He  uses  right  elements,  but  his  picture  is  a 
failure.  It  is  tlie  power  to  compose  with  right  ele- 
ments riglit  things,  that  he  lacks. 

The  alphabet  is  all  right ;  there  is  not  an  immoral 
element  in  it ;  but  how  many  wicked  books  have  been 
written  !  And  music  is  right,  in  every  note ;  and  yet  it 
is  made  to  cater  to  the  lusts  and  appetites  and  passions. 

Tlie  alphabetic  qualities  in  men  are  right  enough ; 
but  the  lives  which  they  spell  out  with  those  alpha- 
betic qualities,  the  habits  which  they  form  from  them, 
the  characters  which  result  from  them,  are  far  from 
right.  When  we  come  to  see  what  men  produce  with 
the  right  faculties  with  which  they  were  endowed  by 
God,  we  cannot  but  pronounce  them  to  be  sinful.  And 
the  sinfulness  is  all  the  more  glaring  because  with  right 
things  men  build  wrong  structures,  because  with  right 
fundamental  elements  they  evolve  characters  which  will 
never  fit  them  for  their  higher  usefulness  and  happiness 
here,  and  still  less  for  the  spiritual  life,  and  for  com- 
munion with  God,  hereafter. 
9* 


202  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 


DIFFICULTY  OF  RIGHT  LIVING. 

I  do  not  consider  it  to  be  an  easy  thing  to  live  right. 
I  look  upon  life  as  I  look  upon  a  child.  If  I  did  not 
believe  in  the  all-bathing  atmosphere  of  Providence 
and  love,  I  could  not  wish  to  see  another  child  born 
into  the  world,  so  great  is  the  peril,  and  so  wonderful, 
beyond  all  ordinary  calculation,  is  the  work  that  is 
going  on.  We  hear  the  clanking  of  the  loom,  and  we 
see  the  fabric  that  is  woven  and  rolled  upon  the  beam ; 
but  we  do  not  see  the  pattern  that  is  woven  in  it.  We 
take  a  hand  that  is  empty  of  skill,  and  we  teach  skill 
to  that  hand.  We  take  a  foot  that  is  void  of  knowl- 
edge, and  we  teach  that  foot  knowledge.  A  child  has 
no  acquaintance  with  qualities,  and  we  teach  him  how 
to  distinguish  qualities.  He  is  ignorant  of  construc- 
tion, and  we  teach  him  how  to  construct.  He  goes  on 
learning  human  nature,  his  own  nature,  his  physical 
nature,  with  his  appetites  and  passions,  every  one  of 
which  needs  to  have  a  special  drill  and  education. 

There  are  some  twenty  or  thirty  tendencies  in  the 
nature  of  a  man  ;  and  each  one  of  them  is  to  be  devel- 
oped in  accordance  with  right  judgments ;  and  he  is  to 
carry  them  in  such  equilibrium  and  proportions  that 
through  all  his  life  there  shall  be  right  gradations  of 
light  and  shadow.  They  are  to  be  so  controlled  and 
managed  that  there  shall  be  symmetry  of  form  and  true 
balance. 

Who  can  drive  one  fiery  horse  with  ease  ?  To  drive 
two  is  harder  still.  But,  if  fifteen  or  twenty  are  in  a 
string,  what  man's  hand  is  skillful  enough  or  strong 
enough  to  hold  the  reins  and  keep  them  exactly  to 
their  paces  ? 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  203 

Here  is  a  man,  born  of  woman,  surrounded  by  ad- 
verse influences,  biased,  stimulated  at  times,  depressed 
at  other  times,  paralyzed  with  fear,  intoxicated  by  in- 
flamed feelings ;  and  yet,  the  physical,  the  social,  and 
the  moral  elements  which  operate  upon  him,  he,  as  a 
creature  of  study,  of  business,  or  of  public  life,  is  to  so 
adjust  as  to  carry  every  part  of  himself  in  rectitude  and 
in  proportion.  Things  that  are  right  enough  in  them- 
selves are  wrong  oftentimes  by  their  combinations,  by 
excess  or  lack,  by  the  uses  to  which  they  are  put,  by 
want  of  right  composition  or  gradation.  So  that  life  is 
a  thousand  times  more  imperfect  even  than  men  think ; 
so  that  the  question  of  perfection  is  almost  a  question 
to  make  men  laugh  ;  so  that  the  idea  of  sinlessness  and 
true  purity  and  absolute  rectitude  is  absurd.  And  the 
more  a  man  knows  what  powers  are  in  him,  how  these 
powers  are  to  be  co-ordinated,  and  how  they  are  all  to 
be  made  to  point  towards  the  one  Divine  element  of 
love ;  the  more  he  comes  to  understand  that  he  is  a 
creature  of  two  worlds,  who  is  to  look  across  this  world 
to  the  other,  and  so  order  everything  here  that  it  shall 
land  him  tliere,  —  the  more  does  he  realize  how  vast  the 
problem  of  life  is.  There  is  no  other  problem  like  it. 
There  is  no  other  problem  that  involves  so  much  risk. 
There  is  no  other  problem  the  pressure  for  the  solution 
of  which  is  so  intense.  The  question  of  furnishing  a 
character  for  eternity  and  for  companionship  with  God 
is  one  which  transcends  every  other. 

THE    SCIENTIFIC   CONFIRMATION   OF   BIBLE   DOCTRINE. 

Now,  it  is  in  connection  with  this  problem  or  ques- 
tion that  there  comes  up  the  scientific  rebound  which 


204  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

is  beginning  to  teach  so  much  about  the  incarceration 
or  incarnation  of  the  spirit  in  the  body.  It  is  in  this 
connection  that  we  are  learning  more  about  the  subject 
of  heredity,  or  the  transmission  of  qualities  to  our- 
selves from  our  ancestors,  and  of  the  effect  of  circum- 
stances, of  blood,  of  laws,  and  of  institutions  on  the 
passions,  the  appetites,  and  the  various  elements  of  the 
mind.  All  these  powerful  external  agents  are  coming 
in,  and  are  producing  a  necessity  for  knowledge  in 
scientihc  directions  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  to 
preach  to  the  coming  generations, — a  knowledge  which 
wUl  enable  them  to  meet  the  assertions  or  the  skepti- 
cism of  those  who  are  bringing  in  new  conditions  of 
mental  philosophy. 

I  have  from  early  life  followed  closely  the  schools 
of  science,  and  gathered  such  knowledge  as  I  could  on 
every  side  in  respect  to  the  actual  condition  of  man,  — 
with  this  addition :  that  I  have,  unlike  the  scientists, 
taken  such  material  facts  as  have  been  evolved,  and 
illuminated  them  by  the  light  of  Divine  revelation,  and 
looked  at  them  from  a  higher  standpoint.  And  I  feel 
that  in  the  times  which  are  to  come  no  man  can  be  a 
faithful  preacher  to  human  nature,  no  man  can  dis- 
criminatingly preach  of  man's  sins  and  sinfulness,  who 
does  not  take  into  consideration  the  developments  which 
are  being  made,  and  which  are  to  be  made ;  and  I  feel 
sure  that  there  is  nothing  which  will  be  found  so  ad- 
mirably connected  with  science,  and  so  parallel  with  it 
everywhere,  as  the  Gospels  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I 
think  it  will  be  discovered,  when  the  best  knowledges 
have  been  derived  from  the  schools  of  science,  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  the  greatest  scientist  of  the  world's 


SINS  AND   SINFULNESS.  205 

history ;  not  in  respect  to  lower  forms  of  matter,  but 
in  respect  to  mind,  which  is  unquestionably  the  very 
topmost  thing  in  this  creation  of  God  upon  the  earth. 
I  do  not  fear  that  science  will  sweep  away  any  funda- 
mental doctrine.  On  the  other  hand,  I  believe  that 
all  fundamental  doctrines  will  be  confirmed  by  science, 
and  that  by  reason  of  the  light  which  science  throws 
upon  them  they  will  shine  out  more  strongly  than 
ever  before. 

INDIVIDUAL  EEPENTANCE. 

I  have  spoken  of  Christ's  method.  He  preached  re- 
pentance everywhere,  as  John  had  preached  it  before 
him.  And  you  will  take  notice  how  substantially  these 
two  preachers  of  repentance  were  alike.  You  will  take 
notice  also,  tliat  when  men  came  to  them  asking, "  What 
shall  we  do  ? "  the  answer  was  very  different  from  that 
which  we  are  prone  to  give.  One  answer  was  given 
to  the  soldiers,  and  another  answer  was  given  to  the 
Pharisees.  In  eacli  case  the  answer  was  adapted  to  the 
mind  of  the  inquirer.  The  modern  way,  in  preaching 
the  doctrine  of  man's  sinfulness,  is  to  make  an  attempt 
to  create  an  atmosphere  in  which  all  men  shall  feel  a 
sort  of  down-pressing  danger  in  consequence  of  univer- 
sal and  distributive  guilt.  When  we  get  men  into  an 
intense  state  of  moral  alarm,  we  point  them,  as  the  say- 
ing is,  to  the  great  Eefuge.  But  that  was  not  the  way 
with  our  Saviour.  He  sought  to  make  all  men  discon- 
tented with  their  present  state ;  he  aroused  in  them  a 
sense  of  its  incompleteness  and  of  its  dangerousness ; 
he  preached  repentance  :  but  when  the  question  came 
up,  "  What  is  repentance  ? "  it  was  made   iger&onal   to 


206  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

each.  He  developed  the  new  life  on  the  basis  of  tlie 
old  life ;  and  it  was  something  special  in  each  par- 
ticular person.  A  miser  cannot  repent  as  a  spendthrift 
can.  They  are  both  inconsiderate  and  selfish,  but  the 
process  of  rej)entance  with  one  is  different  from  what  it 
is  with  the  other. 

Generics  never  take  hold  of  men.  It  is  specifics  that 
take  hold  of  them.  If  you  say  to  a  man,  "  You  are  a 
sly  old  fellow,"  he  shrugs  his  shoulders  and  does  not 
care ;  but  if  you  point  him  to  the  fact  that  you  saw 
him  prying  open  your  letter  and  reading  it,  he  is  very 
much  ashamed.  If  you  say  to  a  man,  "  I  guess  you  are 
not  very  particular  about  how  you  get  your  money," 
he  smiles,  and  rather  thinks  that,  on  the  whole,  it 
is  not  as  bad  as  it  might  be ;  but  if  you  say  to  him, 
bluntly,  "  You  stole,  and  I  can  convict  you  of  it,"  and 
refer  him  to  the  circumstances,  that  touches  him.  A 
specific  charge  is  oftentimes  effectual  where  a  generic 
one  is  not. 

A  bunch  of  needles  put  together  is  as  blunt  as  a 
board ;  but  if  you  take  each  one  out,  and  use  it  by 
itself,  it  is  sharp,  and  pierces  as  all  of  them  together 
will  not. 

If  men  are  called  to  repentance  in  a  bunch,  they  will 
be  very  apt  to  repent  in  a  bunch,  and  their  repentance 
will  be  very  superficial  in  every  way ;  but  if  they  are 
called  to  repent  individually,  they  will  repent,  if  at  all, 
individually,  and  their  repentance  will  run  along  the 
line  of  facts  related  to  their  conduct  and  state. 

You  cannot  repent  of  Adam's  sin  ;  you  cannot  repent 
of  that  part  of  your  nature  in  whose  creation  you  had 
no  part ;  but  you  can  repent  of  that  which  you  are  in 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  207 

your  lower,  your  middle,  and  your  higher  nature ;  you 
can  repent  of  your  delinquencies,  negative  and  positive  ; 
you  can  repent  of  your  wrong-doing ;  you  can  repent 
of  the  unspirituality  of  your  whole  life.  Every  man  can 
take  a  measure  of  himself. 

Xow,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  when  the 
Master  preached  to  the  harlot,  the  harlot  had  her  own 
special  repentance  :  and  that  when  he  preached  to  the 
thief,  the  thief  had  his  own  special  repentance.  Ee- 
pentance  was  the  spu'it  of  God  wrestling  in  each  indi- 
vidual's heart  according  to  the  nature,  the  character, 
and  the  development  of  that  heart. 

HOPEFULNESS    OF   CHEIST's   PKEACHING. 

Christ  taught  that  all  men  were  in  need  of  regenera- 
tion, —  of  the  new  birth.  Undoubtedly  he  taught  re- 
pentance in  such  a  way  that  it  was  believed  to  be  an 
instantaneous  work ;  or,  that  it  was  so  connected  with 
the  lower  human  will  that  when  a  man  was  going 
wrong  he  could  stop  and  go  right.  He  undoubtedly 
insisted  upon  it  that  it  was  a  thing  which  was  to  take 
place  at  once.  He  said  to  the  thief,  "  Steal  no  more  "  ; 
to  the  lecherous,  licentious  man,  "  Be  lecherous  and 
licentious  no  more " ;  to  the  cruel  man,  "  Cease  your 
cruelty  "  ;  to  the  drunkard,  "  Drink  no  more  " ;  to  the 
godless  man,  "Think  of  God,  and  reverence  him," 
Repentance,  according  to  his  teaching,  was  an  instan- 
taneous work  in  this  sense :  that  there  was  a  point  of 
time  in  which  there  was  a  change  from  the  design  of 
^^•rong-doing  to  the  design  of  right-doing. 

He  preached,  also,  that  the  Divine  power  was  in- 
dispensable to  this  change ;  but  he  preached  it  as  a 


208  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

matter  of  hope,  of  inspiration,  and  of  courage  to  men. 
He  taught  that  men  were  in  great  need  of  this  Divine 
power ;  but  he  represented  it  to  be  to  them  what  a  sur- 
geon is  to  a  wounded  man.  If  your  leg  is  broken,  you 
cannot  set  it ;  if  an  artery  is  severed,  you  cannot  stanch 
the  blood ;  and  you  cannot  live  unless  the  surgeon  comes. 
He  is  a  benefactor  and  a  helper.  And  when  Christ 
taught  the  necessity  of  the  dependence  of  men  upon 
God,  he  preached  so  as  to  stimulate  men  in  the  direc- 
tion of  their  necessity  for  the  Divine.  The  effect  of  his 
preaching  was  to  tear  up  self-conceit  by  the  roots.  It 
was  to  give  man  a  sense  of  his  power  to  exalt  himself 
by  the  aid  of  the  Spirit.  It  was  to  teach  him  where 
the  remedy  was,  and  that  he  could  have  it  if  he  wanted 
it.  The  Spirit  is  always  ready  ;  and  the  drift  of  Christ's 
teaching  was  that  men  needed  a  new  birth,  and  that, 
needing  a  new  birth,  they  needed  the  Divine  Spirit ; 
and  that  the  Divine  Spirit  was  waiting  to  be  gracious  to 
them.  It  was  always  on  the  side  of  hope  and  effort, 
and  not  on  the  side  of  casting  anchor  and  waiting,  that 
Christ  taught.  From  his  teaching  men  would  naturally 
deduce  the  fact  of  their  absolute  need  of  higher  succor 
than  their  own  ;  but  they  would  also  come  to  this 
through  knowledge  of  sorrow  for  special  sins,  and  re- 
pentance of  them,  and  thus  be  encouraged  to  seek  the 
higher  help  and  really  help  themselves. 

THE   GERMINANT   VALUE   OF   MORALITY, 

Now,  your  preaching  of  sinfulness  should  never  take 
away  from  men  a  sense  of  the  value  of  morality.  It 
should  modify  their  extravagant  ideas  of  its  value ;  but 
to  tell  a  man  that  nothing  is  cjood  unless  it  is  the  fruit 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  209 

of  an  after-converted  state,  is  to  subvert  the  very  ele- 
ments on  which  you  build,  and  the  very  instincts  to 
which  you  appeal.  The  whole  Bible,  from  beginning  to 
end,  takes  it  for  granted  that  there  are  in  men  separate 
notions  of  truth,  of  honor,  of  justice,  of  rectitude,  by 
which  they  are  to  compare,  to  judge,  and  to  accept;- 
and  if  you  take  away  from  men  the  thought  that  in 
morality  is  found  the  basis  on  which  you  can  build 
the  higher  life,  you  destroy  their  courage  and  paralyze 
their  effort. 

Men  say,  "  Is  not  morality  good  ? "  I  say  it  is  good. 
"  Is  it  enough  ? "     No ;  no  ! 

When  the  vine  first  throws  out  leaves  in  spring  they 
are  great,  broad  leaves  ;  and  men  say,  "  There,  those 
are  fine  leaves ;  do  you  tell  me  that  they  are  good  for 
nothing  ? "  No,  I  do  not  tell  you  any  such  thing ;  but  I 
say  that  it  will  be  a  good  while  before  you  will  make  any 
wine  out  of  them.  "Wliat  are  leaves  good  for  ?  Why, 
to  make  blossoms.  What  are  blossoms  good  for  but  to 
smell  good  ?  They  are  good  for  evolving  the  final  form 
of  fruit.  Leaves  and  blossoms  are  relatively  good,  but 
their  purpose  is  not  fulfilled  until  they  have  developed 
something  better. 

Nov/,  morality  is  a  seed  which  is  relative  to  some- 
thing higher,  which  it  is  to  produce.  It  is  that  out  of 
which  is  to  grow  the  better  states  of  men.  It  should 
therefore  be  precious  in  men's  sight.  I  would  not  say 
to  young  men  in  my  parish,  It  does  not  matter 
whether  you  are  good  or  bad,  truthful  or  untruthful, 
just  or  unjust,  pure  or  impure.  On  the  contrary,  I 
say,  Your  morality  is  good  so  far  as  it  goes..  I  say  to 
you,  Love  God  in  such  a  way  that  your  love  shall  in- 


210  LECTUKES  ON  PREACHING. 

flame  your  whole  spiritual  nature ;  but  if  you  will  not 
rise  to  that,  the  highest  and  truest  conception  of  man- 
hood, then  at  least  do  the  next  thing  below  that.  If 
you  will  not  do  that,  I  beseech  of  you,  do  right  things 
even  from  selfish  motives.  It  is  better  to  do  right 
things  from  feelings  of  personal  interest  than  to  do 
wrong  things.  When  a  man  begins  on  this  ground, 
he  begins,  although  the  beginning  is  but  as  a  grain  of 
mustard-seed.  It  is  not  enough  to  end  with,  but  it  is 
enough  to  begin  with.  A  man  who  begins  at  the  lower 
foundations  of  motive  is  in  a  situation  such  that  you 
can  inspire  him  and  lift  him  higher  and  higher.  In 
dealing  practically  with  men  you  are  obliged  to  act  on 
that  principle  or  method  of  dealing  with  him.  You 
can  never,  by  revival  after  revival,  no  matter  how 
powerful  it  may  be,  take  a  coarse,  rude  nature,  whose 
inward  states  and  outward  habits  are  those  of  sin  and 
sinfulness,  and  bring  him  at  once  into  a  condition  of 
high  spiritual  vision  and  of  glorious  Christian  develop- 
ment. What  can  you  do  ?  You  can  transform  his  pur- 
poses at  once ;  you  can  set  them  on  inward  elements 
of  character ;  but  a  whole  life's  work  is  to  be  emjDloyed 
to  carry  that  character  up,  little  by  little,  and  little  by 
little. 

Men  are  like  vagabond  boys  in  the  street.  They  are 
lying,  thieving,  dirty,  ragged,  uncombed  rascals  ;  and 
they  who  love  them  go  out  after  them  ;  and  going  out 
after  them,  they  never  take  the  children  that  are  rosy, 
sweet-faced  and  cherry-lipped,  well  taken  care  of  at 
home.  They  may  love  these  most ;  but  they  are  after 
the  sinful;  and  they  take  the  little  ragamuffins  and 
bring  them  into  the  reformatory  house,  and  wash  their 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  211 

skin,  and  take  off  their  rags,  and  clothe  them  aright, 
and  persuade  them,  in  one  way  and  another,  to  submit 
themselves  to  the  necessary  restraint,  and  abide  in  the 
asylum,  and  become  scholars,  until  at  last,  after  weeks 
and  mouths  of  instruction  and  drill,  and  after  various 
experiences  under  the  pressure  of  moral  influences,  the 
boy  says,  "  I  am  going  to  make  a  man  of  myself" 
When  he  says  this,  so  far  as  his  determination  is  con- 
cerned he  is  converted.  He  has  made  up  his  mind  to 
live  a  different  life ;  but  the  object  which  he  has  before 
him  is  not  yet  accomplished. 

Now,  transfer  that  idea  to  the  case  of  a  man  in  a 
conoregation.  This  man  is  converted.  He  has  been 
living  on  a  lower  plane  of  moralities,  and  he  makes  up 
his  mind  that  he  will  rise  to  a  higher  plane ;  but  has 
he  reached  that  higher  plane  ?  Has  he  developed  in 
himself  the  spiritual  knowledge  towards  which  he  as- 
pires ?  Has  he  wrouglit  out  the  corresponding  ele- 
ments, social  and  moral,  which  belong  to  tiaie  manhood  ? 
No,  but  he  has  made  a  start  for  it.  He  has  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  building,  and  it  will  rise  gradually, 
through  various  stages  of  evolution  and  care,  until  the 
last  perfect  form  is  attained. 

If  you  preach  to  rude  congregations  you  must  do  as 
missionaries  do.  When  missionaries  come  home  they 
generally  have  a  less  opinion  of  theology  and  a  greater 
opinion  of  the  Bible  than  almost  any  other  class.  They 
find  in  missionary  life  how  wonderful  are  the  adapta- 
tions of  Scripture  to  tlie  treatment  of  men  in  lower 
conditions.  They  find  that  there  is  nothing  that  re- 
quires so  much  patience,  so  much  charity,  and  so  much 
.waiting,  as  human  nature  in  its  primitive  states.     They 


212  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

find  that  nothing  is  slower  in  unfolding  than  undevel- 
oped men.  Men  are  so  extremely  low,  so  very  imper- 
fect, so  thoroughly  sinful,  that  when  they  are  preached 
to,  and  they  turn  about  and  begin  to  do  right,  it  will 
be  at  a  point  very  far  down  in  the  scale  ;  and  it  is 
only  step  by  step,  gradually,  that  the  Divine  Spirit 
can  be  developed  in  them.  It  is  long  afterwards  that 
they  reach  the  higher  life.  After  death  they  will  be 
perfected,  but  not  before. 

OPPOSING    DANGERS   OF  GENERIC  PREACHING. 

Let  me  say  one  more  thing  in  this  direction,  namely : 
that  in  preaching  the  doctrine  of  sinfulness  to  men 
there  is  danger  of  overaction.  It  works  in  two  ways ; 
producing  discouragement  on  the  one  side,  and  pre- 
sumption on  the  other. 

Have  you  never  heard  men  say,  in  a  rallying,  ban- 
tering manner,  "  0,  well,  of  course  I  did  wrong ;  but 
you  know  it  is  human  to  err.  To  be  sure,  what  I  did 
was  wrong ;  but  all  men  are  sinners,  and  I  am  one  of 
them  "  ?  There  springs  up  from  this  preaching  a  sort 
of  impression  in  the  mind  that  a  man  is  a  sinner  any- 
how. "  Yes,"  they  say,  "  of  course  he  is,  everybody  is, 
a  sinner.  We  are  all  going  along  together.  We  keep  ■ 
step  one  with  another."  Such  a  generic  method  of 
presenting  the  doctrine  of  sinfulness  tends  to  destroy 
conscience  in  men,  and  they  seem  to  think  that  when 
they  sin  they  are  walking  in  accordance  with  the  consti- 
tution of  things,  and  that  whatever  may  be  the  mischiefs 
resulting  from  their  action  they  are  no  more  responsible 
for  them  than  a  sour-apple  tree  is  for  having  sour  apples, 
or  than  a  thorn-tree  is  for  having  thorns.     If  you  con- 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  213 

tinue  preaching,  "All  men  are  sinful,  all  men  are  sinful, 
ALL  MEN  AEE  SLNFUL,  0,  ALL  MEN  AEE  SINFUL," 
they  will  all  of  them  justify  your  opinion,  but  not  one 
of  them  will  feel  sinful  because  he  lives  as  he  does, 
any  more  than  I  feel  so  because  my  hair  was  naturally 
brown,  or  than  you  do  because  your  hair  was  naturally 
black. 

Yet,  as  I  shall  show  at  another  time,  this  generic 
doctrine  of  universal  sinfulness  has  its  place,  and  is  a 
power,  in  the  active  work  of  the  ministry ;  but  after 
all,  you  must  specialize.  Otherwise  men  will  go  to  one 
or  the  other  extreme,  —  that  of  presumption  or  that 
of  discouragement.  Sensitive  natures  will  brood  the 
matter  inwardly,  and  will  feel  such  a  sensibility  to  sin, 
and  will  have  such  a  sense  of  their  own  vileuess,  as 
shall  take  away  from  them  all  spring  and  all  hope,  and 
really  leave  the  mind  almost  paralyzed.  I  have  heard 
of  not  a  few  cases  of  this  kind.  I  have  known  of  per- 
sons (for  instance,  women)  who,  without  any  sense  of 
special  sinning,  were  made  unhappy  and  wellnigh  in- 
sane from  a  general  impression  of  their  own  sinfulness. 
I  have  one  in  my  mind  now. 

There  are  women  who  are  martyrs.  If  there  are 
what  may  be  called  Protestant  Saints,  I  think  they  are 
the  women  who  forbear  a  loving  wifehood,  and  go 
into  a  sister's  family  to  be  a  mother  to  children  that 
they  have  not  themselves  borne,  to  take  care  of  them, 
and  to  labor  for  them,  loving  them  and  nourishing 
them  and  sacrificing  self  for  them,  asking  no  name  and 
no  reward  outside.  And  yet,  I  have  known  women  of 
that  sort  who  had  such  a  withering  sense  of  their  un- 
worthiness  that  they  hardly  dared  to  raise  their  eyes 


214  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

to  God  because  they  felt  so  sinful,  and  had  such  an  im- 
pression that  their  life  was  a  waste.  Sometimes  under 
such  circumstances  tliey  are  even  demented  with  this 
intense  conviction  of  sinfulness.  There  are  cases  in 
whicli  persons  have  such  a  sense  of  their  own  inherent 
wickedness,  and  of  the  wickedness  of  every  action 
which  springs  from  the  qualities  of  their  nature,  that 
their  very  aspiration  is  paralyzed.  And  it  is  an  awful 
perversion  of  the  truth  where  it  is  preached  so  as  to 
produce  such  results.  Phenomena  like  these  are,  I 
think,  among  the  most  piteous  exhibitions  that  the 
world  can  look  upon. 

You  must  therefore  beware  of  preaching  generics  in 
one  way,  so  as  to  make  men  callous  and  presumptuous, 
and,  in  another  way,  so  as  to  make  them  oversensitive, 
and  drive  them  into  despair. 

You  are  so  to  discriminate  in  preaching  that  CA^ery 
person  shall  have  his  own  character,  his  own  tenden- 
cies, his  own  peculiarities  specialized  to  him.  You  are 
to  preach  so  that  every  man  shall,  as  it  were,  be  called 
by  name ;  so  that  his  attention  shall  be  drawn  to  his 
own  special  life-work ;  so  that  he  shall  be  led  to  root 
up  all  the  poisonous  weeds,  and  prune  all  the  right 
plants  or  tendencies  in  his  nature ;  so  that  he  shall  aim 
at  the  full  development  and  symmetrizing  of  his  whole 
character  in  the  direction  of  hopefulness,  of  trust,  of 
.  aspiration,  and  of  a  sense  of  the  Divine  poM^er ;  so  that 
he  can  work  out  his  own  salvation,  because  it  is  God 
tliat  is  working  in  him,  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good 
pleasure. 

As  to  the  question  whether  it  is  best  to  preach  sins 
or  sinfulness,  I  say.  Both,  —  sinfulness  in  a  measure, 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS.  215 

but  sins  continually,  sins  all  the  time,  so  far  as  you 
take  that  side  in  your  preaching.  Sinfulness  is  generic ; 
sins  are  specific ;  and  although  every  man  needs  to 
know  that  his  whole  nature  is  low  and  requires  Divine 
inspiration  and  re-birth,  yet,  that  which  will  touch 
men  most  sensibly,  and  arouse  them  most  effectually, 
and  bring  them  to  a  new  life  most  certainly,  is  that 
which  is  specific. 

SPECIFICATION   OF   CHARACTERS. 

The  next  question,  which  I  shall  not  more  than 
mention  this  afternoon,  is  this :  not.  What  is  sinful  ? 
but,  What  are  the  modes  by  which  you  can  make  men 
conscious  of  sinfuhiess  ?  For  yourselves,  study  the 
doctrine  of  sin  in  all  its  ramifications ;  but  when 
you  come  to  preach,  the  distinctive  thought  with  you 
should  be,  "  I  know  that  men  are  sinful ;  but  they 
do  not  feel  it:  how  shall  I  make  them  understand 
it?" 

Here  is  a  man  that  sits  and  smiles  under  your 
preaching  with  the  serenest  contentment  in  regard  to 
himself  You  say  that  Man  is  depraved,  —  yes,  if  you 
please,  totally  depraved ;  you  say  much  (I  care  not  how 
much)  that  is  condemnatory  of  Man  ;  and  yet  he  is 
smiling  and  contented  and  happy.  How  are  you  to 
reach  that  particular  man  with  such  a  sense  of  sin  as 
to  bring  him  down  ? 

Here  sits  another  man  in  the  congregation,  and  hears 
you  preach  on  the  subject  of  sin  ;  and  he  is  no  more 
affected  than  the  rocks  on  ]\Iount  Sinai  were  when  the 
law  was  given  to  Moses.  His  heart  is  as  cold  as  it  can 
be;  and  he  says,  "Our  minister  is  doing  that  thing 


216  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

very  well  to-day,  —  very  ivdl."  How  are  you  going  to 
assail  that  man  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  a  moral  con- 
sciousness of  personal  sin  home  to  him  ?  Must  you 
wait  for  that  mysterious  influence  of  the  spirit  which 
comes  with  revivals,  and  which  is  likened  to  the  wind, 
which  "  bloweth  where  it  listeth,"  so  that  you  "  can- 
not tell  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth "  ?  Is 
there  to  be  a  second  moral  deluge  which  shall  come 
without  any  instrumentality  on  your  part  ?  Is  there 
not  a  way  in  which  you  can  preach  sin  so  that  a  man 
hearing  you  shall  say,  "  I  am  a  sinner,  not  on  account 
of  my  undivided  dividend  of  Adam,  but  on  account  of 
my  special  disposition  and  life"  ? 

There  are  others  who  are  equally  devoid  of  feeling. 
They  live  in  the  sweet  amenities  of  life.  They  are  too 
amiable  and  gentle  and  polite  to  deny  anything  that 
you  say  from  the  pulpit.  No  matter  what  you  say, 
they  smile.  If  you  say  to  them,  "You  are  a  great 
sinner,"  they  say,  "  Yes,  1  know  I  am."  "  It  is  your 
duty  to  repent."  "  Certainly,  certainly."  "  Don't  you 
think  the  time  has  come  when  you  should  begin  ? " 
"  I  do." 

It  is  with  men  as  the  Western  Methodist  minister 
said  it  was  with  grain.  Said  he,  "  Grain  that  leans 
away  from  me  I  can  cut :  it  is  grain  that  leans  toward 
me  which  the  sickle  slips  over,  and  which  I  cannot 
cut." 

Now,  in  going  out  into  your  congregations,  your 
w^ork  will  be  to  specialize,  not  simply  single  sins  nor 
single  faculties,  but  characters.  Your  work  will  be 
like  that  of  an  engineer,  who  must  learn  general 
principles,  but  who,  when  he  goes   into  the   field  to 


SINS   AND   SINFULNESS. 


217 


survey,  to  build,  or  to  bombard,  must  substitute,  for 
his  foregoing  education  in  generics,  practice  in  spe- 
cialties. 

On  the  true  method  of  doing  that  work  I  shall,  by 
the  help  of  God,  attempt  to  throw  some  light  in  a 
future  lecture. 


10 


IX. 


THE   SENSE   OF   PEESONAL  SIK 

March  11,  1874. 

HIS  afternoon  I  am  to  speak  to  you  as 
to  the  best  procedure  in  your  ministry  by 
which  to  inspire  men  with  a  sense  of  their 
personal  sinfulness. 

CONVICTION,   TO   CARRY   ASPIRATION. 

Why  is  it  necessary  to  inspire  such  a  feeling  ?  For 
what  purpose  is  it  to  be  done  ?.  It  is  only  that  your 
people  may  be  incited  to  reformation.  The  use  of 
preaching  to  men  the  doctrine  of  sin  is  that  they  may 
be  led  away  from  sin.  The  test  of  right  preaching  on 
this  subject  is  not  its  agreement  with  any  preconceived 
theory :  it  is  its  agreement  with  the  fundamental  sym- 
pathies and  laws  of  the  Ininian  soul,  manifesting  itself 
in  tlie  renunciation  of  sins,  or  in  an  effort  to  renounce 
them,  and  in  the  betaking  of  one's  self  to  the  higher 
life.  I  say  that  it  were  worse  than  cruel  to  preach  to 
men  their  lost  condition,  and  their  guiltiness,  and  their 
corruption  before  God,  if  that  were  all. 

Human  life  itself  sets  us  the  example.  If  men  walk 
the  street  heedlessly,  thrusting  themselves  against  little 


THE   SENSE   OF  PERSONAL   SIN.  219 

children  or  unprotected  women,  we  rebuke  them,  be- 
cause their  rudeness  can  be  corrected  and  sliould  be 
corrected  ;  but  who  ever  rebukes  a  man  with  a  shrunk- 
en leg  for  halting  and  causing  inconvenience  in  the 
street  ?  By  the  consent  of  all  mankind,  we  are  silent 
on  that  subject. 

If  a  man  be  found  in  anger,  or  in  any  other  unwor- 
thy feeling,  making  up  hideous  faces  at  persons,  we  re- 
buke him  because  he  is  doing  that  which  is  improper, 
and  because  it  can  be  changed ;  but  if  a  man  be  para- 
lyzed, or  if  he  were  born  with  a  hideously  ugly  face 
which  he  is  obliged  to  carry  all  his  life,  we  never  say 
anything  about  that,  because  he  cannot  correct  it. 

It  is  the  correctableness  of  sinful  conduct  and  life 
that  gives  the  whole  reason  for  dwelling  upon  this  sub- 
ject. Therefore,  the  sense  of  sin  inspired  in  men  is 
only  the  reverse,  and  should  be  the  concomitant,  of  a 
sense  of  aspiration.  It  is  our  business  so  to  discourse 
to  our  people  that  they  shall  feel  not  only  a  sense  of 
wrong  and  wrong-doing,  but  a  corresponding  sense  of 
right  and  right-doing ;  it  is  our  business  to  preach  to 
them  so  as  that  out  of  our  preaching  shall  come  that 
influence  which  shall  impel  them  in  the  right  direction 
from  the  wrong  direction. 

EXPERIENCE  THE  TRUE  TEXT  TO  PREACH  FROM. 

This  is  the  fundamental  idea  on  which  I  construct 
my  remarks  to  you  this  afternoon ;  and  in  the  first 
place  I  assert,  that  it  is  comparatively  useless,  that  fre- 
quently it  is  worse  than  useless,  to  preach  to  men  of 
their  sins  in  no  other  way  than  by  a  retinue  of  texts, 
and  by  statements  of  the  autliority  of  the  Word  of 


220  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

God ;  because  that  part  of  God's  Word  whicli  is  au- 
thoritative is  that  which  lives  consciously  in  us.  You 
must  translate  into  men's  actual  experience  that  which 
is  taught  by  letter  in  the  Word  of  God  before  you  can 
appeal  to  it  and  make  them  feel  that  they  have  violated 
it.  For  a  book  is  a  book,  and  but  a  book.  If  it  be  a 
book  that  declares  the  Divine  will  and  the  Divine 
judgment,  far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  there  is  no  use 
in  employing  it ;  but  I  declare  that  it  is  auxiliary,  that 
it  is  interpretative.  The  work  must  first  be  developed 
in  a  man's  own  understanding  and  in  his  moral  con- 
sciousness ;  and  then  his  experience  and  sensibility 
must  be  corroborated  by  the  declarations  of  the  Word 
of  God ;  but  mere  textual  preaching,  a  mere  array  of 
texts  so  long  that  it  looks  like  a  sinner's  funeral  proces- 
sion, will  not  convict  men.  It  will  teach  them  what 
the  Bible  says  ;  but  what  we  want  is  to  make  them 
fed. 

Generic  preaching  lies  under  precisely  the  same  con- 
ditions. As  all  rivers  empty  into  the  ocean,  so  all 
specifics  will  first  or  last  empty  into  generics.  All 
facts  and  all  personal  instances  of  special  dispositions 
and  acts  in  the  individual  are  materials  which  every 
man,  if  he  has  any  philosophical  tendency,  finally  gen- 
eralizes, and  forms  into  some  sense  of  disposition ;  but 
to  preach  the  generic  first  makes  it  very  difficult  for 
men  to  specialize,  whereas  to  preach  the  specific  first 
will  by  and  by  lead  men  of  themselves  to  gener- 
alize. 

Therefore  it  is  that  the  true  preaching  of  sinfulness 
is  the  preaching  of  individual  and  personal  sins.  In 
order  to  preach  truly,  it  is  far  better  that  you  should 


THE   SENSE   OF   PEESONAL   SIX.  221 

prepare  your  way,  not  by  any  abstract  statement  of 
law  or  rule  of  conduct,  but,  as  far  as  possible,  by  con- 
crete statements. 

You  never  could  make  a  person  who  was  born  in  a 
village,  who  had  seen  nothing  of  pictures,  who,  finding 
in  himself  a  blind   impulse  to  paint,  had  worked  his 
way  up  so  far  as  to  paint  a  lion-sign  for  a  tavern,  and 
who  was  praised  for  liis  skill  by  aU  his  neighbors,— 
you  never  could  make  such  a  person  believe  that  he 
w^as  not  an  artist.     AU  the  abstract  arguments  in  the 
world  would  not  convince   him  of  this;  but  bring  a 
genuine  painting  from  out  of  the  French  school,  of  a 
lion  in  an  African  desert,  and  set  it  down  in  his  shop 
by  the  side  of  his  crude  banner-picture,  and  go  away 
without  saying  a  word,  and  the  man  coming  in  of  a  sud- 
den, and  looking  at  the  one  and  at  the  other,  will  step 
back,  and  say,  "  Ass  !     I  thought  that  picture  of  mine 
was  a  lion,  but  I  have  found  out  that  I  am  an  ass,— 
that  is  all.     I  will  never  paint  another  picture."     He 
has    been    resisting   statements   of    his   well-meaning 
friends   to  the   effect  that   there  was   not  very  much 
artistic  skill  displayed  in  his  picture,  and  has  looked 
upon  them  as  attempting  to  "  repress  genius,"  and  he 
would   not  believe  anything  that  they  said  about  it; 
but  the  moment  there  is  put  before  him  a  real  thing, 
an  ideal  picture,  he  lays  aside  his  notion  that  he  is  an 
artist,  and  now  all  the  world  could  not  produce  the  op- 
posite impression  in  his  mind.   What  he  needs  now  is  to 
be  buoyed  up,  and  encouraged  to  think  that,  with  self- 
denial  and  perseverance,  in  time  he  can  attain  even  to 
that  excellence  which  he  sees  exhibited  in  the  picture 
which  throws  his  own  work  so  entirely  in  the  shade. 


222  LECTUEES  ON  PEEACHING. 

Now,  in  simply  preaching  to  men  that  they  are  self- 
ish, that  they  are  proud,  that  they  are  vain,  and  that 
they  are  without  holiness,  you  cannot  produce  much 
effect  upon  them.  Well,  yes,  they  all  sujipose  that 
they  are  so ;  the  Bible  says  it,  the  Catechism  echoes 
it,  and  the  minister  re-echoes  it.  It  is  the  general 
opinion  of  the  whole  neighborhood  that  they  are  all 
sinful ;  that  they  are  sold  under  sin ;  that  they  are  in 
bondage  to  sin.  This  is  iterated  and  reiterated,  until 
by  and  by  people  say,  "  Yes,  we  are  all  sinners  ;  none 
of  us  are  clad  in  holiness  ;  we  are  all  under  the  wrath 
and  curse  of  God.  But  how  much  do  they  feel  it  ? 
What  reality  is  there  in  it  to  them  ? 

THE   GENERIC   MADE   POTENT   BY   THE   SrECIFIG. 

As  I  shall  have  occasion  to  show  by  and  by,  these 
forms,  these  limitations,  these  statements,  these  defi- 
nitions, being  filled  up  by  vital  personal  experience, 
become  of  immense  potency  and  usefulness  ;  but  alone, 
without  any  filling  up,  they  are  of  very  little  validity. 

If  a  man  can  be  shown  an  act  of  heroic  benevolence, 
and  if  then  his  own  daily  dripping  selfishness  can  be 
put  right  alongside  of  it,  he  will  hardly  need  a  sermon. 
The  two  things  will  preach  to  each  other. 

If  a  man,  full  of  avarice  and  bound  up  in  stinginess, 
has  presented  before  him  the  very  opposite  traits  of 
character  in  all  grace  and  beauty,  the  ideal  which  he 
gets,  the  impression  which  is  made  upon  him,  the  prac- 
tical development  of  the  right  which  he  sees,  becomes 
the  revelator  of  the  wrong,  and  gives  him  such  a  po- 
tent sense  of  that  wrong  as  can  be  given  to  him  by  no 
argument  and  no  merely  x^hilosophical  statement. 


THE   SENSE   OF  PEESONAL   SIN.  223 

By  and  by,  when,  by  such  a  comparison,  yoii  have 
prepared  a  man's  mind  so  that  at  last  he  is  brought  to 
an  understanding  of  his  condition,  of  his  lack,  of  the 
reason  of  his  deficiency,  of  his  limitations,  and  of  his 
sins,  then  it  is  a  very  different  thing  to  preach  that 
men  generally  are  sinful;  it  becomes  an  idea  with  a 
new  meaning.  The  true  way  of  preaching  is  not  to 
preach  the  general  sinfulness  of  men,  and  then  leave 
them  to  find  out  their  sins,  but  to  open  up  to  them 
their  sins,  so  that  they  may  see  them  .by  a  comparison 
of  wliat  they  are  with  the  ideal  standard,  and  then 
bring  them  from  the  consciousness  of  personal  trans- 
gression up  to  the  highest  generic  view. 

SCKIPTURAL   versus   THEOLOGICAL   PEEACHING. 

In  preaching  these  elements,  men  must  follow  the 
Scripture  method,  as  distinguished  from  the  theologi- 
cal method.  I  do  not  wish  to  speak  evil  of  dignities, 
nor  of  customs,  nor  of  the  wisdom  of  men ;  but  woe  be 
to  any  generation  that  is  not  better  for  the  JJower  that 
it  has  to  differ  from  that  which  went  before ;  and  woe 
be  to  any  generation  whose  principle,  in  looking  1)ack 
upon  great  men,  great  thoughts,  and  great  develop- 
ments, which  have  prepared  the  way  for  later  genera- 
tions, is  to  look  upon  them  only  as  upon  idols,  to  wor- 
ship them.  It  is  a  fact  that  one  set  of  men  having 
lived  makes  the  state  of  the  next  set  larger,  and  ena- 
bles them  to  go  further  in  the  line  of  development  than 
their  fathers  did. 

Now,  I  think  there  could  be  no  such  cruelty  as 
to  preach  to  this  generation  as  Jonathan  Edwards 
preached  to  his.     Not  that  there  were  not  magnificent 


224  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

strains  in  his  preaching ;  but  there  was  such  a  sense 
of  the  Divine  authority,  sucli  a  sense  of  the  rights  of 
Divinity,  and  such  a  sense  of  the  sinfulness  of  sin, 
as  amounted,  not  always,  but  frequently,  to  a  species 
of  inhumanity  toward  men  because  they  were  sinful. 
And  there  has  been  since  his  time,  and  since  the  times 
of  other  great  men  who  preached  revival  sermons, 
what  I  may  call  a  savage  way  of  preaching  man's  sin- 
fulness, —  which  is  not  the  Scriptural  way.  The  Bible 
method  of  preaching  the  sinfulness  of  man  is  the  pa- 
rental way.  The  Scriptures  are  full  of  human  feeling ; 
they  are  full  of  considerateness ;  they  are  full  of  gen- 
tleness ;  they  are  full  of  variations  of  approach ;  they 
are  full  of  differing  modes  of  development ;  and  what 
the  pulpit  needs  more  than  anything  else  in  preaching 
man's  sinfulness  is  the  feeling,  on  the  part  of  those 
that  preach,  that  they  are  joined  to  man  by  his  sinful- 
ness the  same  as  by  his  sorrow,  and  that  they  are  to 
be  helpful  to  him,  and  to  feel  toward  him  as  a  father 
feels  toward  his  son,  or  as  a  mother  feels  toward  her 
daughter. 

SYMPATHY  WITH   SINNERS. 

It  is  not  the  man  who  has  the  most  profound  sense 
of  the  glory  of  God ;  it  is  not  the  man  who  has  the 
most  acute  sensibility  to  the  sinfulness  of  sin  ;  it  is  the 
man  who  carries  in  his  heart  something  of  the  feeling 
which  characterized  the  atoning  Christ,  —  it  is  he  that, 
is  the  most  effectual  preacher.  It  is  the  man  who  has 
some  such  sorrow  for  sin  that  he  would  rather  take 
penalty  upon  himself  than  that  the  sinner  should  bear 
it.     It  is  not  the  man  who  is  merely  seeking  the  vindi- 


THE   SENSE   OF  PERSONAL   SIN.  225 

cation  of  abstract  law,  or  the  recognition  of  a  great, 
invisible  God ;  it  is  the  man  who  is  seeking  in  himself 
to  make  plain  the  manifestation  of  God  as  a  Physician 
of  souls,  sorrowing  for  them,  calling  to  them,  and 
yearning  to  do  them  good.  It  is  the  compassion  of 
men  who,  while  they  know  how  to  depict  the  danger- 
ousness  of  sin,  oftentimes  its  meanness,  and  always  its 
violation  of  Divine  law,  yet  recognize  that  they  can 
never  bring  men  so  easily  to  an  admission  of  their  sin- 
fulness by  representing  God's  wrath  and  producing  in 
them  a  feeling  of  terror,  as  by  holding  up  before  them 
the  Divine  compassion  and  kindness. 

"  Come  here  ! "  says  a  father  to  his  child ;  "  you  played 
truant,  it  seems."  "  No,  I  did  n't,"  says  the  boy.  "  You 
did  n't  ?  Xow,  don't  undertake  to  deceive  me ;  you  did ! 
You  see  that  whip ;  you  know  what  is  coming ;  own 
that  you  did  it."  "  I  did  n't  do  it."  "  Well,  how  came 
you  not  to  be  at  scliool  ? "  "I  was  sent  on  an  errand." 
"  Who  sent  you  ? "     "  The  schoolmaster." 

Suppose,  instead  of  approaching  the  boy  in  anger, 
and  driving  him  into  a  succession  of  lies  through  fear, 
the  man  had  called  him  to  him,  and  said :  "  Have  you 
had  a  pleasant  time,  my  son  ?  You  have  been  weak 
to-day.  I  am  very  sorry  for  you.  I  know  you  were 
tempted ;  and  you  gave  way  to  the  temptation.  If  I 
had  been  with  you  I  could  have  helped  you.  Perhaps 
I  can  help  you  some  now.  I  am  very  sorry  that  you 
did  that.  I  don't  mean  to  punish  you  ;  but  I  want  to 
help  you  out  of  this  weakness." 

All  the  time  the  boy's  tears  are  running  down  his 
cheeks ;  he  does  not  deny  the  charge  ;  and  when  his 
father  goes  on  to  point  out  the  indeconim  of  which  he 

10*  o 


226  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

is  guilty,  the  ruin  to  which  it  will  lead  him  if  he  per- 
sists in  it,  and  the  bad  example  which  he  has  set  in  the 
school,  he  feels  worse  and  worse ;  and  when  finally  the 
father  asks,  "  What  will  your  mother  think  of  it  ? " 
he  boo-hoos  right  out.  He  cannot  bear  to  have  his 
mother  told ;  and  the  father  says,  "  If  you  will  try  to 
do  better,  I  won't  say  anything  about  it " ;  and  he  is 
exceedingly  grateful  to  his  father ;  and  the  next  time 
he  is  tempted  to  play  truant  all  his  best  feehngs  rise 
up  to  hinder  him ;  and  all  in  him  that  is  generous  and 
loving  says,  "  I  don't  want  to  do  it." 

In  the  one  case  the  father  came  to  the  boy  with 
wrath  and  penalty,  and  the  boy  hardened  himself  and 
resisted.  In  the  other  case,  the  father  came  to  the  boy 
with  the  same  charge,  but  he  did  it  in  such  a  way  as 
to  bring  him  into  a  condition  in  which  his  best  moral 
feelings  were  roused  against  temptation. 

Ought  we  not,  then,  to  gather  some  lessons  from 
things  that  are  taking  place  through  the  providence  of 
God  in  every  Christian  household,  in  every  household 
that  is  controlled  by  Christian  affections ;  and,  above 
all,  by  that  supremest  of  all  inspirations,  love  ?  Are 
they  not,  in  some  remote  sense,  revelations  of  the  Divine 
plan  and  the  Divine  methods  ?  Wlien  we  turn  from 
these  thmgs  to  the  New  Testament,  and  see  the  way 
of  our  Lord,  may  we  not  understand  that  one  mode  of 
preaching  to  men  so  as  to  bring  them  to  a  sense  of 
their  sinfulness  is  to  preach  to  them,  I  will  not  say  ex- 
cusatorily,  I  will  not  say  in  a  manner  which  will  make 
sin  seem  less  sinful,  but  so  that  they  shall  not  think  of 
you  as  standing  over  them  like  a  sheriff  who  has  a  writ 
to  serve  upon  them,  or  wlio  has  a  sentence  of  execution 


THE   SENSE   OF   PERSONAL  SIN,  227 

wliicli  is  to  take  them  to  the  block  ?  You  are  to  preach 
so  that  men  shall  feel  that  the  things  which  you  say  to 
them  are  spoken  out  of  kindness  and  love.  I  do  not 
think  that  ministers  quite  enough  put  themselves  out 
of  their  profession.  , 

KNOWLEDGE  NECESSARY  TO   SYMPATHY. 

A  boy  at  the  age  of  about  ten  or  eleven  years  rather 
turns  to  the  subject  of  the  Christian  ministry.  He 
rather  selects  his  company  with  the  view  that  he  may 
be  a  minister.  He  rather  thinks  he  shall  be.  He  knows 
that  his  mother  is  praying  for  it  all  the  time,  and  he 
would  like  to  fulfill  her  hopes.  He  reads  good  books,  and 
goes  with  good  boys,  and  is  a  good  boy  himself.  When 
he  goes  to  school,  he  is  a  model  boy.  He  does  not  have 
any  association  with  bad  boys.  When  he  goes  to  the 
academy,  he  is  still  rather  remarkable  as  a  good  boy ; 
and  by  this  time  he  begins  to  know  it.  When  he  reaches 
the  college,  he  goes  right  into  the  college  prayer-meet- 
ing, and  is  soon  made  a  deacon  in  the  college  church. 
He  walks  in  the  ways  of  the  wise,  and  really  does  not 
know  much  about  human  life  outside.  He  has  very  little 
acquaintance  with  what  are  the  troubles  of  bad  and 
high-spirited  young  men  in  college.  And  as  soon  as  he 
gets  to  the  theological  seminary  he  is  put  to  bed  with 
Emmons  and  all  the  other  excellent  saints  of  New  Eng- 
land. He  lives  with  them.  And  when  he  is  ordained  as 
a  minister  he  goes  to  all  the  associational  meetings,  and 
to  all  the  councils,  and  is  everywhere  in  close  relations 
wdth  his  own  kind  and  class.  So  it  comes  to  pass  that 
he  is  one  of  the  most  exemplary  of  all  the  men  that  go 
into  the  pulpit.     But,  really,  he  knows  next  to  nothing 


228  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

about  the  way  in  which  ordinary  men  live  in  this  world. 
He  cannot  put  himself  in  anybody's  place. 

Jesus  descended  from  the  loftiest  position,  took  upon 
himself  the  form  of  a  man,  humbled  himself,  became  a 
servant,  and  was  obedient  un^o  death,  even  the  death  of 
the  cross,  —  or,  as  we  should  put  it  in  our  modern 
phrase,  the  gallows.  He  walked  among  men  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  and  made  himself  personally  ac- 
quainted with  every  trial  and  sin.  He  was  tempted  in 
every  faculty,  and  yet  without  sin.  He  knew  what 
was  in  men,  and  he  knew  how  to  make  allowance  for 
them.  He  was  their  High-Priest,  symbolized  by  the 
Jewish  high-priest.  Like  ourselves,  he  knew  what 
human  infirmities  were,  and  he  had  compassion  upon 
those  who  were  out  of  the  way.  This  was  the  peculiarity 
of  Christ,  —  that  he  sympathized  with  sinners. 

With  how  many  young  professional  ministers  is  it 
the  case  that  they  do  not  know  the  great  round  of 
weakness  and  infirmity,  as  well  as  guilt,  which  pre- 
vails in  the  community  !  How  men  are  born  into  life, 
—  with  what  limitations ;  with  what  different  degrees 
of  opportunity ;  with  what  biases ;  with  what  partial 
education,  wrong  education,  or  excellent  education  ! 
Some  men  are  born  with  might  and  power  of  will  and 
passion  almost  irresistible.  Some  men  go  mourning  all 
their  life  long  that  their  stream  of  success  runs  so 
slender,  and  is  so  full  of  shallows  and  sand-bars.  Some 
men,  in  their  feelings,  are  swept  as  leaves  in  autunm  by 
the  tenipest ;  and  some  men  never  know  what  a  breeze 
of  feeling  is.  Some  men  are  invincible  by  money,  and 
others  are  vincible  by  it.  Some  men,  in  their  pride, 
are  like  snow-capped   mountains,  grand,  high,  white, 


THE   SENSE   OF   PERSONAL   SIN.  229 

cold,  solitary.  Some  men  are  Lorn  with  melancholy, 
and  some  with  hope.  Some  men  are  happy  in  their 
associations  and  avocations,  and  others  find  themselves 
entangled  by  false  alliances,  by  mis-partnerships,  by 
ten  thousand  influences  from  which  they  are  struggling 
to  break  away.  Some  men  are  all  the  time  condemn- 
ing themselves,  and  others  are  all  the  time  overesti- 
mating themselves.  There  is  a  great  whirl  and  round 
of  human  nature  into  which  men  are  thrown,  and 
where  the  strife  is  intense,  and  the  result  doubtful. 
Some  men  sin  and  hide  their  sin,  and  others  sin  and  do 
not  know  how  to  hide  it.  Some,  having  sinned,  sink 
down  under  a  sense  of  shame,  and  some  are  buoyed  up 
by  a  feeling  of  pride.  Some,  when  cast  out  by  reason 
of  their  sins,  are  conscious  that  they  are  better  than 
many  who  are  kept  in.  Some  who  are  doomed  to 
poverty  feel  that  they  are  more  deserving  of  prosperity 
than  those  who  have  it  but  do  not  earn  it.  The  great 
round  of  life  is  full  of  mistakes  and  of  mysterious  influ- 
ences, against  which  men  stagger  and  strive,  in  various 
degrees.  And  the  man  who  occupies  the  position  of  a 
minister  of  the  gospel  should  have  such  a  realizing 
knowledge  and  sense  of  human  want  and  weakness 
and  wickedness,  that  the  thought  of  these  things  would 
bring  tears  of  sympathy  to  his  eyes. 

If  one  in  this  spirit  reads  the  New  Testament,  and 
sees  how  God  deals  with  sin  and  with  sinners,  he  will 
find  no  letting  down  of  the  ideal  of  goodness  as  against 
sin  ;  he  will  find  no  lowering  of  the  standard  of  holiness 
as  against  sinfulness.  That  ideal  and  that  standard 
must  be  kept  up  forever.  "  Let  God  be  true,  but  every 
man  a  liar."    No  matter  what  comes,  keep  the  standard 


230  LECTUEES  ON  PKEACHING. 

and  the  ideal  high.  But,  after  all,  working  with  that 
ideal  should  be  lull  of  patience  and  sweetness.  Your 
sorrow  for  the  people  to  whom  you  preach  should  be 
greater  than  their  sorrow  for  themselves  can  be.  You 
are  to  make  yourself,  therefore,  in  the  place  of  Christ, 
a  sufferer  for  sufferers,  sent  to  bear  sin  in  its  pain  and 
penalty,  without  its  guilt. 

There  are  unsuspected  influences  in  the  air.  Men  are 
afraid  to  carry  their  consciences  into  their  life.  This 
you  ought  to  understand ;  I  think  you  will  be  convinced 
of  it  when  you  come  to  preach ;  and  I  believe  it  will 
help  you  to  preach  so  that  men  will  be  made  to  feel 
their  weakness  and  sinfulness  and  infirmities. 

CONVENTIONAL   AND    REAL   SINS. 

Men  in  the  community  at  large  are  seldom  trained 
with  a  universal  conscience.  In  general,  they  are  trained 
with  what  might  be  called  a  conventional  conscience, — 
a  conscience  which  is  largely  ecclesiastical.  There  are, 
in  the  first  place,  conventional  sins.  The  church  has  its 
organization  and  its  house  of  worship ;  and  men  feel 
that  it  would  be  a  great  sin  to  treat  this  edifice  as  they 
would  an  ordinary  structure.  Especially  are  men  trained 
in  the  Eoman  and  Episcopal  and  in  other  denomina- 
tional churches  to  feel  that  there  is  a  sanctity  in  the 
building  itself.  And  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
not  suppose  that  Divine  grace  inheres  in  stone  and 
plaster  as  much  as  in  bread  and  vdne.  So  men  are 
taught  to  feel  that  lack  of  respect  toward  a  venerable 
church  is  next  to  contempt  of  God. 

A  man  walks  half-way  up  the  aisle  in  a  church,  ab- 
sent-minded, with  his  hat  on,  and  whisthng,  and  coming 


THE   SEXSE   OF  PERSONAL   SIX.  231 

to  bis  senses  checks  himself,  and  thinks  he  is  a  great 
sinner.  He  has  whistled  in  church !  He  has  worn  his 
hat  in  the  house  of  God  !  I  should  say,  young  gen- 
tlemen, that  you  had  better  not  wear  your  hat  in  any 
house  ;  and  that  whistling  in  a  dwelling-house  is  always 
bad  manners  ;  but  whistling  in  a  church  is  considered 
by  many  as  a  gross  offense.  And  this  man,  going 
home,  says  to  his  wife,  "  I  really  feel  bad,  my  dear  "  ; 
and  he  tells  her  how  he  wore  his  hat  and  whistled  in 
church ;  and  she  exclaims,  "  Why,  that  was  shocking  ! 
I  hope  nobody  saw  you."  He  is  thoroughly  ashamed 
of  himself,  and  feels  guilty  besides.  The  next  morning 
he  gets  up,  and  understanding  that  there  is  a  man  in 
the  neighborhood  who  wants  a  horse,  he  thinks  he  will 
sell  him  his,  —  which  is  a  good  horse,  but  is  slightly 
lame  on  account  of  a  contracted  hoof.  The  lameness 
does  not  show,  however,  except  when  he  is  put  to  hard 
work.  So  the  man  sells  his  horse.  He  knows  that  it 
is  unsound,  yet  he  dexterously  conceals  the  fact,  and 
the  bargain  is  consummated.  Xow  does  he  go  back  to 
his  wife  and  say,  "  0  my  dear,  I  am  a  great  sinner  "  ? 
Not  he! 

From  this  you  will  see  what  I  mean  by  a  conven- 
tional sin,  as  standing  over  against  a  real  sin. 

THE    SUNDAY   QUESTION. 

In  that  way,  you  shall  find  that  men  are  often  very 
conscientious  about  Sunday;  that  is,  strict  Puritans. 
They  will  not  do  any  work  on  Sunday,  nor  even  on 
Saturday  night.  On  Sunday  they  will  not  allow  any 
newspapers  to  be  read  in  their  families.  Neitlier  will 
they  allow  any  except  "  Sunday  books  "   to  be  read. 


232  LECTUIIES    ON   PREACHING. 

Their  cliildren  must  go  to  meeting  in  the  morning,  and, 
if  possible,  again  in  the  afternoon.  There  must  be 
nothiiiGc  done  of  a  secular  nature  until  after  the  sun 
has  sone  down  below  the  horizon.  One  minute  and 
it  is  irreverent,  it  is  breaking  Sunday,  to  tell  a  funny 
story.  The  next  minute  down  goes  the  sun,  and  then 
the  story  may  be  told.  The  very  persons  who  are  thus 
particular  about  observing  Sunday  and  fast-days  will, 
even  on  Sunday,  sit  and  discuss  their  neighbors'  faults 
without  a  shadow  of  the  feeling  that  they  are  striking 
a  thousand  fathoms  deeper  into  sin  than  they  would  be 
if  they  were  to  "  break  "  Sunday. 

I  admire  Sunday,  I  admire  the  old  Jewish  Sabbath, 
and  I  think  New  England  owes  much  to  it.  One  of 
the  sweetest  of  my  reminiscences  is  that  of  the  old 
breezy  hill-top  in  Litchfield  on  Sunday;  of  the  Sun- 
day sun,  and  the  Sunday  birds,  and  the  Sunday  shim- 
mering Mount  Tom,  and  the  Sunday  elm-trees,  and  the 
Sunday  scenes,  some  of  which  were  touching,  and  some 
ludicrous.  As  I  recall  it,  Sunday  was  a  great  moral 
power.  But  how  about  uncharitableness  ?  How  about 
avarice  ?  How  about  deliberate  selfishness  in  ten  thoin* 
sand  customary  ways  ?  How  about  anger  ?  How  about 
the  spirit  of  petty  revenge  ?  How  about  such  things 
as  these,  which  go  right  to  the  root  of  moral  character, 
and  are  like  rust  on  steel,  eating  to  its  very  substance  ? 

And,  nowadays,  what  is  the  public  sentiment  of  the 
church  ?  What  is  the  sentiment  of  those  who  meet 
each  other  in  church  communion  ?  What  is  the  sen- 
timent of  persons  who  sit  over  against  each  other  at 
the  tea-table,  and  delight  themselves  in  serving  up  their 
fellow-men,  and  enjoy  the  little  repast  of  this  fault  and 


THE   SENSE   OF   PERSONAL   SIN.  233 

that  suspicion  ?  How  many  peojjle  feel  that  the  want 
of  heart,  the  want  of  love  and  tenderness,  the  want  of 
benevolence,  indicates  a  lack  of  that  higher  love  which 
makes  God  God  ?  How  many  persons  are  there  who 
feel  that  these  sins  of  disposition  amount  to  immeasur- 
ably more  than  customary  and  ecclesiastical  sins  ?  Does 
the  pulpit  do  its  duty  in  this  matter  ?  Do  men  who 
preach  sutiiciently  enlighten  their  congregations  con- 
cerning it  ? 

How  is  it  in  the  matter  of  quarreling  ?  There  are 
parishes  in  New  England  where  men  have  had  quar- 
rels which  they  watered  and  pruned  and  nourished  for 
twenty  years ;  and  it  would  seem  to  be  their  pride  to 
hand  them  down  as  a  legacy  to  their  posterity.  In  the 
West,  when  men  quarrel,  they  knock  each  other  down 
and  roll  over,  and  get  up  and  take  a  drink,  and  that  is 
the  end  of  it ;  but  in  New  England  men  do  not  dare  to 
take  the  law  into  their  own  hands  and  settle  their  difft- 
culty,  but  they  remember  it.  They  carry  the  insult,  the 
wrong,  the  grudge,  the  hatred ;  and  it  breaks  out  into 
evil  speaking,  backbiting,  and  all  manner  of  little  mean 
retaliations.  INIen  who  cherish  bitter  animosities  toward 
each  other  yet  go  to  the  same  communion-table,  and  sit 
under  the  same  preaching,  from  ten  years  to  ten  years, 
and  all  the  time  they  do  not  feel  that  Mount  Sinai, 
if  it  could  speak,  would  thunder  at  them  ;  but  they  are 
talking  about  their  hopes,  and  their  hopes,  and  their 
hopes ! 

Now,  I  want  to  know  if  any  abstract  preaching  of 
sinfulness,  and  letting  alone  the  real  and  specific  sins 
of  the  commonest  sort,  can  be  a  faithful  and  fruitful 
preaching  of  sinfulness  ? 


234  LECTUKES   ON   PEEACHING. 


EELATIVE   PKOPORTIONS   OF   DIFFERENT   SINS. 

More  than  that,  there  is  a  want  of  perspective  in 
men's  conscience  or  sense  of  sin,  so  that  they  overesti- 
mate some  offenses  and  underestimate  others.  For 
instance,  you  will  find  persons  who,  if  they  sit  down  on 
the  Bible,  suddenly  spring  up  with  a  most  overwhelm- 
ing sense  of  sin  ;  or,  having  neglected  some  minor  duty, 
they  will  groan  over  that  as  though  it  were  a  most  seri- 
ous transgression.  In  their  minds  there  is  no  distinc- 
tion between  sins  in  regard  to  their  magnitude.  They 
have  no  sense  of  the  relative  proportions  of  sins,  and 
of  their  effects  in  the  community.  Therefore  men  fre- 
quently indulge  themselves  in  the  most  ruinous  courses 
without  compunction,  and  then  make  a  great  account 
of  little  peccadillos,  manifesting  the  intensest  contrition 
concerning  them. 

There  is  great  need,  therefore,  of  maintaining  in  the 
minds  of  men  a  clear  insight  of  the  nature  of  sins,  and 
thus  giving  them  a  true  standard  by  which  to  judge  of 
sinfulness. 

RELATIVITY   OF  PREACHING. 

That  leads  me  to  say,  next,  that  there  are  very  few 
persons  who  are  so  round,  so  all-sided,  that  any  part  of 
them  is  a  true  test  of  right  or  wrong.  Taking  society 
at  large,  you  will  find  that  it  breaks  itself  up  into  groups 
or  classes  of  men,  that  only  one  or  two  of  the  faculties 
of  the  human  mind  are  employed  by  each  class,  and  that 
these  become  the  tests. 

For  example,  you  will  find  that  some  men  have  an 
intellectual  test.     It  is  the  aoreement  between  this  or 


THE   SENSE   OF  PERSONAL   SIN,       '  235 

that  course  of  conduct  and  the  rule  or  the  law.  By  na- 
ture or  by  training  almost  the  entire  sensibility  of  their 
minds  has  been  centered  in  intellectual  processes,  and 
ideas  control  them.  So,  when  you  preach  in  a  large 
city,  if  you  are  an  able  man  and  draw  men  toward  you, 
you  will  find  in  your  congregation  a  great  many  who, 
while  you  are  touching  this  man,  that  man,  and  the 
other  man,  will  themselves  never  be  touched.  You  will 
appeal  to  their  heart,  to  their  manhood,  to  their  sense  of 
shame,  to  their  better  feelings,  but  you  will  not  reach 
them.  By  and  by,  however,  there  will  come  a  man  who 
will  preach  a  different  kind  of  sermon  in  your  pulpit. 
Tlie  majority  of  the  people  will  say,  "  I  hope  you  are  not 
going  to  have  that  man  exchange  with  you  often.  I  do 
not  know  why,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  his  sermon  was 
the  driest  that  I  have  listened  to  for  many  months."  But 
these  men  of  ideas  will  say,  "  I  never  had  anything 
come  so  near  to  me  as  that  man's  sermon.  I  do  not 
understand  how  it  was,  bat  he  made  me  tremble."  Tlie 
center  in  them  was  not  moral  at  all ;  it  was  intellectual. 
The  tests  by  which  they  were  accustomed  to  judge  of 
right  and  wrong  were  purely  intellectual ;  and  therefore 
they  were  struck  with  that  sermon  and  affected  by  it. 

You  must  make  up  your  mind,  as  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  that  you  are  to  strike  everybody,  in  your  preach- 
ing. A  minister  must  be  like  a  magazine,  provided 
with  a  varied  armament.  If  you  are  going  to  batter 
down  a  fort,  your  battering  guns  must  be  very  heavy. 
If  you  are  going,  on  the  other  hand,  to  pick  off  men  at 
a  great  distance,  you  must  get  telescopic  rifles.  If  you 
are  going  to  shoot  water-fowl,  you  must  take  a  heavy 
shot-gun.     If,  as  an  ornithologist,  you   are   going   to 


236      *     LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

shoot  small  birds,  you  must  take  a  small  shot-gun  and 
small  shot.  The  kind  of  game  which  you  are  going 
to  hunt  will  determine  the  sort  of  gun,  the  caliber 
of  the  arms,  which  you  will  require.  Because  you  are 
a  man  of  taste,  you  must  not  preach  taste  all  the  time ; 
because  you  are  a  man  of  feeling,  you  must  not  preach 
feeling  all  the  time ;  and  because  you  are  a  man  of  con- 
science, you  must  not  preach  conscience  all  the  time. 

MANY   ROADS   TO    CONSCIENCE. 

Young  men,  however  much  it  may  tax  you  to  think, 
you  must  think,  if  you  are  going  to  be  ministers.  There 
must  be  that  in  yoiir  preaching  which  shall  take  hold 
of  the  men  to  whom  you  preach.  There  will  be  difler- 
ent  classes  of  minds  in  your  congregations,  and  you 
must  adapt  your  preaching  to  those  different  classes. 
There  will  be  those  who  will  be  touched  more  by  intel- 
lectual preaching  than  by  anything  else,  and  there  will 
be  those  whom  intellectual  preaching  will  scarcely 
touch.  There  will  be  those  who  will  respond  to  an 
appeal  to  the  conscience,  and  there  will  be  those  who 
will  not  be  at  all  affected  by  such  an  appeal.  There 
will  be  those  who  can  be  more  easily  reached  through 
taste  than  through  any  other  channel ;  and  you  will 
reach  them  effectually  by  showing  them  that  they  are 
out  of  harmony  with  the  universe.  There  will  be  men 
whom  you  cannot  touch  by  appealing  to  their  emotion 
of  benevolence  and  kindness,  but  whom  you  can  touch 
by  appealing  to  tlieir  conscience.  An  abstract  sense 
of  right  and  wrong  is  a  strong  constitutional  center  in 
many  persons,  and  they  are  at  once  overwhelmed  and 
oppressed  when  they  arc  made  to  feel  tliat  they  have 


THE  SENSE   OF  PERSONAL   SIN.  237 

violated  the  principles  of  rectitude.  But  a  practical 
sermon,  wliich  is  called  "  a  sermon  to  the  conscience," 
and  which  screws  the  conscience  down  and  down  and 
down,  and  wellnigh  crushes  it,  will  leave  a  large  part 
of  your  congregation  without  feeling,  or  wdth  very  slight 
feeling,  because  that  is  not  the  point  where  they  deter- 
mine right  and  wrong.  Conscience  in  them  has  never 
been  trained  or  brought  out.  There  are  men  whose 
whole  life  determines  right  and  wrong  by  its  relations 
to  kindness  or  unkindness. 

I  know,  and  you  know,  great,  large,  front-headed 
men,  men  with  high  foreheads,  bountiful  men,  men 
with  large  features,  who  cannot  bear  cruelty  or  any- 
thing that  looks  toward  it.  To  them  anything  that 
hurts  is  wrong.  They  interfere  wdth  family  discipline, 
saying,  "Now,  don't,  don't  punish  that  child."  If  it 
is  a  merchant's  clerk  that  has  gone  wa'ong,  they  say, 
"  You  had  better  look  at  the  young  man  more  kindly, 
and  give  him  another  chance."  They  interfere  with 
the  execution  of  the  laws.  Anything  tliat  is  cruel,  or 
that  gives  pain,  they  look  upon  with  disallowance  ;  and 
anything  that  is  benevolent  receives  their  approbation. 
Kindness  is  the  test-center  with  them.  Show  them  that 
sin  is  unbenevolent  and  you  have  them.  If  you  cannot 
show  them  this,  it  may  be  a  violation  of  God's  law,  and 
tliey  will  wink  at  it ;  it  may  be  an  insult  to  the  majesty 
of  Heaven,  and  they  will  encourage  it ;  it  may  be  send- 
ing men  down  to  perdition,  and  they  will  not  look  with 
great  disfavor  upon  it ;  but  show  them  that  it  is  harm- 
ful to  living  men,  and  give  them  instances  of  its  harm- 
fulness,  and  you  will  touch  tliem  so  that  tears  will  run 
from  their  eyes,  and  they  will  begin  to  say, "  Well,  now^, 


238  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

sin  is  sin,  and  must  be  put  a  stop  to  " ;  but  the  moral 
sense  of  such  men  is  in  sensibility  to  benevolence,  and 
not  in  conscience  nor  in  the  intellect. 

Some  men  will  be  far  more  likely  to  be  convicted  if 
you  sliow  them  that  their  life  has  been  unbecoming 
and  inconsistent  with  the  higher  forms  of  manhood; 
that  it  has  not  been  chivalric  nor  heroic. 

Here  is  a  man  of  pride.  He  has  been  accustomed  to 
judge  of  himself  and  of  his  relatives  by  that  element ; 
but  his  conscience  works  with  his  pride,  —  for,  let  me 
tell  you,  there  is  not  one  man  in  a  thousand  of  average 
men  whose  conscience  is  pure  and  simple.  Everybody, 
almost,  has  some  faculty  that  is  auxiliary  to  conscience. 
You  cannot  touch  conscience  in  the  majority  of  men 
except  through  some  auxiliary  faculty  which  opens  to 
it.  One  man  is  touched  in  his  conscience  through  the 
understanding  ;  another,  through  benevolence,  as  I  have 
already  said ;  another  when  you  have  convicted  his 
ideals.  In  some  cases  conscience  lies  at  the  bottom  of 
a  man's  self-esteem  ;  and  if  you  reach  it  you  must  reach 
it  by  arguments  addressed  to  his  estimation  of  himself. 
Others  have  conscience  so  allied  to  shame  that  if  you 
rouse  it  you  must  first  rouse  up  their  sense  of  shame, 
and  make  them  feel  that  they  iiave  violated  that  which 
is  praiseworthy.  You  cannot  touch  their  conscience  in 
any  other  way. 

A  man  is  a  thief.  He  breaks  open  houses.  He  sets 
fire  to  barns.  He  murders  men.  Among  his  compan- 
ions he  does  not  feel  the  first  qualm  of  sensibility. 
He  is  arrested,  and  brought  into  the  village  where  all 
his  old  friends  reside.  He  is  thrown  into  jail.  The 
whole  community  are  full  of  indignation.     One  after 


THE   SENSE   OF   PERSONAL   SIN.  239 

another  of  his  former  acquaintances  come  and  look  in 
on  him  as  though  he  were  a  wild  beast.  He  begins 
to  fell  the  concentrated  sense  of  the  indignation  and 
blame  of  the  whole  people.  His  love  of  praise  is  very 
strong ;  and  now,  under  the  influence  of  detection  and 
disclosure  and  the  public  sentiment  of  the  community, 
he  begins  to  have  a  feeling  of  remorse.  He  did  not 
feel  remorseful  at  all  in  the  midst  of  his  confederates  ; 
but  when  he  was  brought  where  shame  operated  upon 
him  ]iis  conscience  waked  up,  and  being  waked  up  by 
such  help  and  stimulus,  it  became  mighty  in  him. 

You  cannot  get  at  men's  consciences  unless  you  know 
what  are  the  auxiliary  powers  by  which  you  can  reach 
them.  In  some  fear  is  auxiliary ;  in  others  veneration 
is  auxiliary ;  and,  what  may  seem  strange  to  you,  but 
what  is  as  true  as  that  you  live,  in  still  others  taste  is 
auxiliary. 

A  musician  who  is  exceedingly  irascible,  and  sensi- 
tive to  discord,  will  understand  how,  if  he  is  at  discord 
w^ith  the  Divine  government,  he  is  sinful. 

There  are  many  persons  who  talk  to  us  in  this  way : 
I  cannot  worship  in  your  churches ;  but  let  me,  on  a 
Sunday  morning,  go  into  the  fields,  in  the  midst  of  the 
scenes  of  nature,  and  I  think  I  can  see  God  there.  My 
dear  old  venerable  father  used  to  pooh-pooh  that ;  he 
used  to  call  it  moonshine ;  and  I  used  to  say,  "  Yes, 
and  sunshine  too,  father ;  for  I  am  just  one  of  those 
persons."  I  never  had,  under  preaching,  anything  like 
such  a  personal  feeling  of  holiness,  or  such  a  sense  of 
the  nearness  and  overpowering  presence  of  the  other 
world  brought  to  me,  as  through  the  faculty  of  ideality, 
or  that  principle  of  the  soul  which  takes  cognizance  of 
fine,  beautiful  things,  —  tlie  sense  of  taste. 


240  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

I  know  that  when  I  was  in  the  Luxembourg,  and  saw 
the  first  real  regiment  of  paintings  that  I  ever  saw  in 
my  life,  everything  retreated  to  my  brain.  I  did  not  feel 
the  floor  when  I  walked  on  it.  My  head  seemed  like 
a  globe  of  fire.  I  never  felt  the  sanctity  of  the  love 
a;nd  presence  of  God  so  near  to  me,  and  I  never  had 
such  an  appreciation  of  the  beauty  and  glory  of  infinite 
justice,  as  I  did  in  the  gallery  of  pictures  at  the  Luxem- 
bourg. I  might  have  sat —  as  I  did  —  in  Calvin's  chair 
at  Geneva  without  any  emotions  of  that  kind.  I  ap- 
preciate the  life  of  Calvin,  his  great  work,  and  his  ex- 
cellences ;  but  no  associations  connected  with  him  could 
produce  such  an  effect  upon  me  as  I  received  at  that 
time  through  the  sense  of  taste. 

My  dear  old  father  never  could  sympathize  with  that 
feeling.  He  thought  that  though  it  might  sometimes 
be  excused,  it  was  a  wishy-washy  sort  of  piety.  And 
there  are  many  who  feel  that  this  sense  of  exquisite 
beauty  cannot  have  much  to  do  with  religion.  And 
yet,  in  many  natures  it  is  auxiliary  to  their  conscience ; 
and  in  such  cases  through  it  you  will  reacli  the  moral 
sense  when  you  cannot  in  any  other  way. 

A  man  says,  "  Such  a  lady  thinks  herself  so  literary 
and  so  fine,  that  she  has  gone  to  the  Episcopal  Church 
and  thinks  that  she  cannot  stand  our  preaching.  Tlie 
fact  is,  she  cannot  stand  the  right  up  and  down  truth. 
She  does  not  like  that  kind  of  preaching  which  opens 
the  door  of  the  heart  and  shows  a  man  that  he  is  a 
traitor  before  God,  and  is  bound  to  hell  and  damna- 
tion ;  and  so  she  has  gone  among  the  Episcopalians." 
How  much  knoAAdedge  of  the  mind  of  man  has  a  per- 
son who  makes  that  criticism  ? 


THE   SENSE   OF   PERSONAL   SIN.  241 

SINFULNESS   TO   BE  PREACHED   TOWARD   HOPE. 

Through  every  oue  of  these  avenues  of  which  I  have 
spoken  the  conscience  may  be  approached.     Some  men 
are  so  organized  that  they  have  a  conscience  which  can 
be  reached  directly  ;  but  the  majority  of  men  have  con- 
sciences which  can  be  aroused  only  through  auxiliary 
powers  ;  and  it  is  your  duty  to  know  what  these  auxil- 
iary powers  are,  and  through  them  to  address  mens 
consciences  so  as  to  be  sure  of  gaining  access  to  them. 
For  a  man's  conscience  is  like  a  man  in  his  house,  who 
is  very  busy,  and  who  instructs  his  servant  to  look  at 
every  person  who  comes  to  the  door,  and  let  him  in  if 
he  looks  all  right,  and  not  otherwise.     Many  a  man's 
conscience  is  not  reached  because  the  truth  is  not  prop- 
erly presented  to  him.     The  approach  which  we  make 
to  men's  consciences  and  feelings  in  religion  must  be 
made  in  such  a  way  as  to  excite  in  them,  not^  comba- 
tiveness,  not  resistance,  but  hope  and  aspiration. 

There  are  times,  I  suppose,  when  a  congregation 
which  has  been  under  your  care  for  a  time  may  need 
to  be  roused  up  by  what  I  should  call  extravagant 
preaching.  I  remember  hearing  my  father  say  that 
when  he'  went  to  East  Hampton  he  found  that  the 
church  there  had  subsided  into  a  state  of  lethargic  con- 
tent. He  could  not  by  a  direct  appeal  to  their  feeliugs 
produce  any  uplift ;  and  so  he  resorted  to  another 
method.  Said  he,  "I  took  decrees,  I  took  foreordma- 
tion,  I  took  election,  and  I  took  reprobation,  and  I  let 
them  off  all  at  once ;  and  pretty  soon  I  saw  that  the 
people  were  getting  mad.  I  kept  at  them  till  by  and 
by  I  had  the  whole  church  about  my  ears ;  and  they 


VOL.    111. 


242  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

had  waked  up  ;  and  then  I  began  to  put  in  the  gos- 
pel." 

Now,  whatever  may  be  the  adroitness  of  such  a  prac- 
tice as  that  (I  do  not  undertake  to  judge  in  such  a 
matter),  the  general  rule,  and  the  rule  which,  if  you 
have  the  formation  and  training  of  your  church,  you 
will  scarcely  need  to  go  aside  from,  is  this :  that  all 
your  expositions  of  evil  and  shortcoming  should  inspire 
hope  in  your  people,  and  not  despair  ;  that  they  should 
work  toward  reformation,  and  not  merely  toward  pro- 
ducing in  men  the  feeling  that  they  are  miserable 
sinners,  like  the  Kentucky  negro,  who  had  been  kicked 
and  cudgeled  all  his  life,  aud  always  expected  to  be 
kicked  and  cudgeled. 

CHRIST'S   WAY. 

You  know,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there  are  children 
who  are  so  sensitive  to  their  parents'  wishes  that  the 
slightest  frown,  or  shadow  of  a  frown,  throws  them  into 
tears.  They  want  to  do  the  things  which  will  please 
their  father  and  mother,  and  they  cannot  bear  tlie 
thought  that  they  have  done  anything  to  displease 
them.  And  you  should  give  your  congregations  such 
a  sense  of  the  wrongfulness  of  wrong,  and  the  sinful- 
ness of  sin,  that  they  shall  long  for  the  right  thing. 
Do  not  put  your  congregation  into  a  mortar,  and  take 
a  pestle,  and  grind  tliem  to  powder.  Do  not  make 
them  feel  all  the  time  that  they  are  miserable  sinners, 
and  that  God  may  hj  and  by  come  with  a  revival,  and 
that  there  may  then  l)e  a  resurrection  in  the  valley  of 
dry  bones,  but  that  they  have  no  power  to  do  anytlnng 
for  themseh'es.     Make  them  feel,  rather,  that  the  Lord 


THE   SENSE    OF   PEESOXAL   SIN.  243 

God,  who  made  the  earth,  is  the  Father  of  all  its  people, 
and  will  help  them,  "  working  in  t]ie7n  to  will  and  to  do 
of  his  good  pleasure  "  ;  that  he  is  the  God  before  whom 
they  are  to  give  an  account,  and  who  has  made  himself 
known  to  them  by  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ ;  that  he 
has  said  to  the  world  that  the  nature  of  Divine  holiness 
and  Divine  power  was  to  be  such  as  to  recover  and  re- 
store manhood ;  that  the  plenitude  of  divinity  shows 
itself  in  this :  that  it  brings  forth  in  men  that  which 
reveals  to  them  what  is  good  and  what  is  bad.  You 
cannot  preach  of  man's  sinfulness  too  much,  nor  in  too 
many  ways,  provided  it  develops  in  your  hearers  an 
earnest  aspiration  and  a  longing  desire  for  larger  knowl- 
edge. The  effect  of  a  true  preaching  of  sinfulness  is 
to  produce  in  men  contiinial  discontent,  so  that  they 
shall  say,  "  I  am  not  pure  in  my  heart ;  I  am  not  pa- 
tient as  T  ought  to  be ;  I  am  not  disinterested  enough  ; 
I  am  too  proud  and  too  selfish."  Where,  in  preaching, 
instead  of  simply  making  men  feel  that  they  have 
violated  the  law  of  the  universe,  you  make  them  feel 
that  sin  is  personal  to  them,  and  that  they  are  sinful 
in  the  moral  and  social  elements  of  their  being,  and  in 
the  conduct  of  their  life,  at  the  store,  in  the  school,  at 
home,  everywhere,  and  tliat  what  is  demanded  of  them 
is  that  they  shall  grow  as  men  in  Christ  Jesus,  I  think 
you  will  have  produced  the  effect  which  the  Lord  Jesus 
Clirist  sought  in  his  preaching,  and  which  the  Apostles 
followed  in  their  teaching. 

Not  that  there  are  not  occasions  for  the  preaching  of 
fear ;  but  let  me  say  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  the  minis- 
tration of  fear,  pure  and  simple,  belongs  to  men  who 
stand   on   the   edge   of   animalism.     The  whip  for  the 


244  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

liorse ;  the  goad  for  the  ox ;  and  fear  for  that  man  who  is 
the  next  remove  higher.  But  as  soon  as  fear  has  done 
its  work,  which  is  made  necessary  merely  because  men's 
hides  are  so  tough,  then  they  are  prepared  to  get  out  of 
the  way  of  it,  and  to  be  plied  with  something  nobler. 

Does  fear  die  away,  then  ?  No,  it  transmutes  itself 
It  becomes  an  undertone.  It  no  longer  exists  in  its 
own  absolute  form.  It  adds  itself,  as  a  kind  of  color, 
to  every  other  faculty  of  the  mind  ;  so  that  conscience 
has  its  latent  fear,  hope  has  its  latent  fear,  and  love  has 
its  latent  fear.  It  is  no  longer  coarse,  selfish,  animal- 
like, but  it  gives  stimulus  and  edge  and  inspiration 
and  aspiration  to  each  of  the  better  feelings  in  the 
soul. 

Do  not  think,  then,  that  you  must  not  preach  fear. 
Preach  it ;  but,  as  soon  as  you  can,  preach  it  as  be- 
longing to  everything  which  is  beautiful,  and  sweet,  and 
pure,  and  truthful,  and  high,  and  noble. 

Whether  you  preach  one  view  of  sin  or  another, 
measure  your  preaching  by  this  :  Does  it  discourage 
men  ?  Does  it  drive  them  off  from  religion  ?  Does  it 
make  them  more  obstinate  and  self-willed  ?  Or,  does 
it  make  men  tender  ?  Does  it  enlarge  their  sense  of 
infirmity  ?  Does  it  show  them  where  infirmity  breaks 
over  into  sin  ?  Does  it  make  tliem  feel  that  they  need 
the  down-shining,  everlasting  presence  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  ?  If  such  is  the  fruit  of  your  preaching  of  sin, 
your  church  will  speedily  be  filled,  and  the  work  of 
Christ  will  go  on  under  your  ministration  to  the  sanc- 
tifiation  of  the  hearts  of  3^our  people,  as  fast  as  the 
work  of  summer  goes  on  when  autumn  is  near  at  hand, 
and  the  sun  is  in  its  full  blaze. 


X. 

THE   GEOWTH   OF   CHEISTIAN  LIFE. 

March  12,  1874. 

»HIS  afternoon  I  purpose  speaking  to  you  on 
W^«^   the  subject  of  Bepentance,  Conversion,  and 
'^^^-y^^^   Sanctification,  —  the  three  stages  of  Chris- 
am.%.  tian  life. 


DISCIPLES   OF   CHEIST. 

What  is  a  Christian  ?  It  is  one  who  is  undertaking 
to  learn  how  to  live  as  Christ  commanded.  What  is 
enough  to  enable  one  to  say,  "  I  am  a  Christian "  ? 
On  what  ground  may  you,  as  pastors  and  teachers, 
encourage  your  people  to  feel  that  they  are  Christians, 
and  to  make  a  public  profession  of  their  faith  in  Chris- 
tianity ?  Whoever  gives  you  reasonable  evidence  that 
he  has  set  out  in  good  earnest  to  become  a  disciple  — 
that  is,  a  learner  —  in  the  spirit  and  school  of  Christ  has 
a  right  to  hope.  Almost  always  the  statement  in  my 
time  has  been  that  a  man  must  have  certain  interior 
changes  of  which  he,  or  somebody,  should  be  conscious, 
—  certain  philosophical,  interior  conditions,  which 
should  evince  their  reality  by  outward  life.  My  own 
judgment  is  that  the  definitions  of  becoming  a  Chris- 


246  LECTUKES  ON  PREACHING. 

tian  should  be  simplified  and  brought  back  to  where 
they  were  in  the  time  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles. 

THE  THKEE    ELEMENTS. 

There  are  certainly  three  things  which  are  implied, 
although  they  may  not  be  consciously  analyzed  and 
distinctly  set  before  the  mind  of  a  person  who  is  a 
beginner  in  this  new  style  of  life,  —  namely,  rcmincia- 
tion,  acllicsion,  and  constrttdion.  It  will  not  hurt  you  to 
have  substituted  for  the  names  "  repentance,  faith,  and 
right-living "  these  less  familiar  names ;  for  sometimes 
a  new  word  sets  a  man  a-thinking ;  whereas,  if  a  word 
has  been  used  from  time  immemorial,  it  is  so  smooth 
from  handling  that  it  is  apt  to  slip  through  the  mind 
without  producing  any  impression.  Eenunciation  is  a 
resolute  purpose  to  abandon  wrong ;  a  vivid  discrimi- 
nation of  some  kind  between  right  and  wrong,  accord- 
ing to  the  intensity  of  the  man  (low  if  lie  be  low, 
middle  if  he  be  at  the  middle,  and  high  if  he  be  high), 
accompanied  by  a  desire  to  turn  from  that  which  is 
wrong.  Adhesion  is  a  distinct  sense  of  followership  ; 
the  acceptance  of  Christ,  not  intellectually,  as  we  ac- 
cept Sir  William  Hamilton  in  one  school,  or  as  we 
accept  Comte  in  another  school,  or  as  we  accept  Her- 
bert Spencer  in  another  school,  but  as  one  accepts 
some  ideal  master  whose  personal  life  is  a  living  rep- 
resentation of  what  he  intends  to  be;  and  he  who 
comes  into  the  Christian  life  accepts  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  embodiment  of  that  life  which  he  means 
to  live,  and  as  the  representation  of  that  character 
which  he  means  to  form  in  himself ;  and  it  is  to  this 
Clirist  that  he  comes  with  personal  adhesion. 


THE   GROWTH   OF   CHRISTIAN   LIFE.  247 


SEED-TIME   AND   HARVEST. 

Now,  it  is  not  right  for  you  to  make  out  a  full  defi- 
le ition  of  faith,  as  it  exists  when  it  has  ripened  in  men, 
and  come  to  its  climax,  and  then  say  that  a  man  is  not 
converted  until  he  has  such  a  perception  of  Christ  as 
that,  and  such  a  form  of  adhesion  by  faith  to  him. 
For  we  are  not  to  test  the  beginnings  of  life  by  the 
phenomena  of  its  maturity.  You  are  not  to  apply  to 
a  new-born  babe  the  tests  which  you  apply  to  a  man, 
who,  by  law,  has  attained  his  majority.  A  babe  must 
be  judged  through  faith,  by  what  he  is  to  he,  much 
more  than  by  what  he  is. 

So  when  men  begin  the  divine  life,  although  some, 
under  circumstances  of  which  I  shall  speak,  from  the 
beginning  give  evidence  of  wonderful  transformations, 
and  have  a  very  beautiful  experience,  yet,  taking  men 
collectively,  you  are  to  judge  of  them,  not  by  what 
they  say  when  they  are  catechized  and  taught  what 
to  say  ;  but  by  what  you  know,  looking  at  them  with 
perceiving  eyes  and  with  understanding  hearts,  to  be 
the  actual  condition  of  their  inward  state  of  mind. 
I  know  that  persons  who  have  been  brought  up  in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord  by  Christian  par- 
ents, whose  house  has  been  a  church,  and  whose  daily 
life  has  been  almost  that  of  a  catechumen,  may  be 
brought  into  a  full  disclosure  of  Christian  life,  with 
phenomena  which  will  be  ripe  and  ample ;  but  often 
these  persons  were  converted  from  the  cradle.  They 
were  trained  in  their  will,  as  well  as  in  their  other 
faculties,  into  Christian  living,  so  that  when  the  dis- 
closure comes  it  is  like  the  unveiliuG;  of  a  statue  on 


248    -      LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

a  public  square.  To  the  great  mass  it  seems  to  have 
sprung  into  being  then  and  there ;  while,  in  reality,  it 
has  been  the  work  of  the  chisel  and  the  mallet  for 
months,  and,  it  may  be,  through  years.  The  disclosure 
is  sudden,  but  the  formation  was  not. 

The  seed-form  of  experience  is  enough,  therefore,  on 
which  to  encourage  a  man  to  say,  "  I  am  a  beginning- 
Christian."  If  men  are  afraid  to  say,  "  1  am  a  Chris- 
tian," because  they  cannot  stand  all  the  tests  of  Chris- 
tianity, let  them  modify  their  statement,  and  say,  not, 
"  I  am  beginning  to  be  a  Christian,"  which  might  in- 
volve some  absurdity,  but  "  I  am  a  beginning-Christian. 
I  have  begun  to  be  a  Christian."  How  far  have  you 
gone  ?  Have  you  renounced  all  sin  ?  Woe  be  to  that 
man  who  should  dare  to  say  "Yes"  to  that  question. 
No  man  can  tell  what  he  has  renounced  of  unborn 
things.  No  man  can  say,  "  I  have  cleansed  my  heart 
in  innocency,"  in  any  modern  philosophical  sense  of 
that  expression.  But  as  I  understand  it,  and  accord- 
ing to  my  conception  of  sinfulness,  he  can  say,  "  I  have 
made  up  my  mind  to  abandon  sin." 

You  will  usually  find  that,  to  men  of  low  and  rude 
cultvire,  sin  is  some  one  or  two  objective  things,  and 
their  renunciation  of  sin  will  be  mostly  in  regard  to 
those  distinct  offenses.  Higher  than  these,  is  a  grade 
of  men  to  whom  sin  is  not  only  a  series  of  acts,  but 
a  principle  from  which  such  series  of  acts  have  an  out- 
flow;  in  their  case  there  will  be  a  larger  and  broader 
renunciation  of  sin:  but  this  larger  and  broader  one 
is  not  to  discountenance  the  smaller  and  narrower 
one. 


THE   GROWTH   OF  CHRISTIAN   LIFE.  249 


BEGINNING-CHRISTIANS. 

A  man  who  has,  according  to  his  conception  of  right 
and  wrong,  chosen  sides,  and  said,  "  By  the  help  of 
God  I  am  going  to  do  right;  I  mean  to  look  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  judge  by  his  example  and 
commandments  of  what  is  right  and  wrong  for  me,"  — 
such  a  man,  I  hold,  has  begun  a  Christian  life.  He 
is  a  beginning-Christian.  That  which  is  abundant  for 
the  seed-time  in  the  spring  would  be  considered  very 
poor  for  the  harvest-time  in  the  autumn;  and  that 
which  is  enough  to  begin  this  end  of  Christian  life 
with  would  be  far  from  satisfactory  at  the  other  end 
of  Christian  life.  It  is  a  great  deal  better  that  a  man 
should  begin,  as  Christ  puts  it,  like  a  grain  of  mustard- 
seed,  and  go  on  growing  through  his  life,  rising  and 
rising,  as  one  ascends  on  an  inclined  plane,  than  that 
he  should  suddenly  burst  into  Christian  life  with  an 
affluence  of  experience,  and  with  choral  joy,  and  then 
go  sliding  down  the  other  way  through  the  rest  of 
his  life. 

I  am  not  disinclined  to  look  with  favor  upon  the 
dramatic  experience  of  which  I  shall  speak  in  a  mo- 
ment ;  but  we  are  to  be  as  little  children  in  the  Chris- 
tian life,  and  the  evidences  of  Christian  life  may  begin 
witfi  childlike  experiences.  I  regard  it  as  vastly  im- 
portant that  this  should  be  recognized  in  your  minis- 
try ;  because  I  think  that  multitudes  of  men,  for  lack 
of  a  recognition  of  it,  are  lost,  —  that  is,  that  they  stay 
away  from  the  church  and  from  God's  people,  and  live 
an  undisclosed  life,  or  a  partially  developed  Christian 
life,  all  the  rest  of  their  days;  whereas,  if  they  had 
11* 


250  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

been  taken  by  tbe  hand,  and  it  had  been  said  to  them : 
"  You  are  a  babe  in  Christ  Jesus,  but,  being  a  babe, 
you  have  the  seminal  forms  of  manhood  in  Christ 
Jesus  which  you  must  bring  forth  and  unfold,  and  carry 
on  and  up ;  you  are  a  learner  in  the  school  of  Christ, 
you  are  in  the  primary  class,  and  you  are  to  rise  up 
through  all  the  lower  stages  to  graduation,"  —  they 
might  have  been  saved. 

INFANCY  NEEDS   PROTECTION. 

You  must  not  mistake  my  meaning,  and  suppose 
that  I  bring  Christian  character  and  worldly  character 
so  near  together  that  the  point  of  distinction  between 
them  in  their  ideal  forms  is  very  slight. 

Nothing  can  be  more  different  from  the  natural 
character  (that  is,  the  unfolded  nature  of  man)  under 
the  influences  of  this  world,  and  the  nature  of  man 
developed  under  the  influences  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  But  I  say  that  the  beginning  of  that  tran- 
scendent character  which  we  call  Christian  is  very  small 
and  very  feeble,  and  that  you  are  to  accept  that  begin- 
ning in  the  hope  of  the  disclosure  and  the  ending. 

I  therefore  feel,  when  men  have  come  to  the  evi- 
dence of  being  converted,  that  the  throwing  them  off 
and  making  them  wait,  and  refusing  to  admit  them 
either  into  the  churcli  or  into  a  probationary  clas^,  is 
unwise.  Some  ministers  are  in  the  habit  of  saying, 
"  If  this  is  the  work  of  God,  it  will  stand,  and  there 
is  no  danger  of  waiting ;  and  if  it  is  not  tlie  work  of 
God,  they  had  better  be  undeceived  "  ;  but  I  feel  that 
'this  is  not  the  true  way  to  proceed.  It  is  as  if  a  man 
should  take  a  new-born  babe,  and  lay  it  out  of  doors, 


THE   GROWTH   OF   CHRISTIAN   LIFE.  251 

and  say,  "'How,  if  this  child  lives  till  morning,  why, 
it  will  be  worth  our  while  to  take  care  of  it ;  but  if  it 
does  not,  there  is  no  use  of  trying  to  do  anything  with 
it."  When  is  it  that  a  child  needs  succor,  if  not  in 
the  time  of  its  absolute  helplessness  ?  And  where  is  it 
that  man  needs  the  most  instruction  and  culture  and 
shelter,  if  not  at  that  point  where  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  as  a  spark  of  fire,  or  as  a  bruised  reed.  The  reed 
grows  tall  and  slim,  and  is  so  tremulous  that  it  can 
hardly  stand  up  ;  and  some  wild  animal,  having  passed 
by,  has  bruised  it ;  it  still  stands  weakly,  but  so  tender 
is  the  heart  of  God  that,  reaching  forth,  this  bruised 
reed  he  will  not  break  nor  even  bend.  And  he  will 
not  quench  the  smoking  flax.  That  little  point  of 
flame,  which  burns  blue  and  red,  and  rises  and  falls, 
and  rises  and  falls,  and  seems  ready  to  go  out,  on  the 
top  of  the  expiring  wick,  he  will  not  extinguish.  He 
says,  "  I  will  move  so  gently  that  the  feeblest  flame 
shall  not  be  quenched ;  and  thus  tenderly  and  gently 
will  I  deal  with  the  souls  of  men." 

"  A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break,  and  smoking  flax  shall 
he  not  quench,  until  he  send  forth  judgment  unto  victory." 

So  you  are  to  take  the  sparks  and  first  beginnings  of 
Christian  development,  and  shelter  them,  and  nourish 
them,  and  protect  them,  until  you  bring  forth  judg- 
ment unto  victory,  —  until  you  produce  a  Christian 
character  which  overcomes  the  world. 

THE   FIRST   STEP. 

ISTow,  the  theory  of  the  ISTew  Testament,  —  if  it  have 
a  theory,  —  at  all  events  the  j^rac^ice  of  the  New  Testa- 


252  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

ment,  seems  to  me  to  have  been  this  :  to  bring  men 
first,  promptly,  to  a  renunciation  of  every  known  wrong 
thing ;  to  the  resolution,  "  I  will  break  off  my  sins." 
That  was  significant  everywhere,  as  the  very  first  step. 
Having  taken  that  step,  men  were  brought  to  an  imme- 
diate beginning  of  the  higher  and  better  life.  The 
philosophy  which  lies  at  the  root  of  that  life  is  this : 
Such  is  the  nature  of  Christian  living  that  the  moment 
a  man  begins  to  interpret  it  practically,  it  instructs  him 
in  that  which  he  in  no  otlier  way  can  learn  so  well. 

First,  the  great  principle  of  Christian  life  is  disinter- 
ested benevolence,  —  love  to  God  and  love  to  man. 
Now,  undertake  to  live  according  to  that  principle. 
Let  him  that  stole,  steal  no  more ;  let  him  that 
drank,  drink  no  more  ;  let  him  that  was  licentious,  be 
licentious  no  more ;  let  him  that  railed,  rail  no  more ; 
and  let  him  that  quarreled,  quarrel  no  more.  Let  all 
known  sins  be  broken  off.  Say  to  yourself,  "  I  will 
follow  Christ "  ;  and  begin  to  follow  him.  When  you 
are  reviled,  revile  not  again.  If  you  do  not  learn  what 
patience  is  in  trying  to  fulfill  that  purpose,  I  do  not 
know  how  you  can  learn  it.  If  that  is  not  a  better 
sermon  than  any  you  could  hear  preached,  I  am  mis- 
taken. Let  a  man  pierce  you  in  the  tenderest  place 
with  injurious  words,  when  you  have  it  in  your  power 
to  blast  him  like  lightning,  and  do  you  stand  still  and 
say  notliing ;  and  if  that  will  not  teach  you  patience, 
then  I  see  not  how  it  can  be  taught  to  you.  You  are, 
say,  in  business  ;  now  let  a  man,  in  a  place  where  your 
very  credit  is  at  stake,  and  at  a  time  when  your  whole 
commercial  fabric  is  in  jeopardy,  with  mildew  lips  de- 
stroy your  reputation,  and  let  it  be  reported  to  you,  and 


TEE    GROWTH   OF   CHEISTIAN   LIFE.  253 

do  you  listen  to  the  voice  of  Christ,  that  says,  "  Pray 
for  him,  and  love  him,"  —  and  see  whether  you  will  not 
grow  in  patience.  If  it  were  an  abstract  proposition, 
in  the  conference-room,  0,  yes,  you  could  do  it ;  but 
when  to-morrow  you  meet  the  directors  of  your  com- 
pany, and  the  first  man  turns  the  cold  shoulder  to  you, 
and  then  the  next  man,  and  then  the  next,  and  you  see 
that  your  detractor  has  struck  you  to  kill,  and  you 
have  it  in  your  power  to  disclose  something  that  shall 
kill  him,  and  you  say,  "  I  have  set  out  to  follow  Christ ; 
he  reviled  not  again,  and  I  must  follow  him,  and  I  will 
follow  him,  though  it  kill  me,"  —  do  you  not  suppose 
that  that  experience  will  open  in  you  a  knowledge 
of  the  sinfulness  and  temptation  of  the  human  heart? 
Though  before  then  you  had  not  known  much  about  sin 
and  the  temptations  to  sin,  when  you  had  seen  its  inter- 
pretation under  svich  provocation  would  you  not  know 
something  about  it  ?  Ip  all  his  wi'estling  with  the 
world,  let  a  man  say,  "  I  hold  myself  accountable  to 
my  fellow-men  for  the  light  of  my  reason."  Let  him 
say,  "  I  hold  myself  not  to  have  received  this  shining 
imagination  of  mine  to  make  sparks  fly  for  men  to  look 
at,  but  to  be  employed  as  an  opalescent  light  for  the 
comfort  of  others."  Let  him  say,  "  I  am  strong,  not 
that  I  may  wrap  my  cloak  about  me,  and  walk  my  own 
way,  but  that  I  may  help  weak  people  to  gain  a  sense 
of  the  new  life."  Let  him  say,  "  I  am  to  give  myself 
for  men,  living,  as  Christ  gave  himself  for  men,  living 
and  dying." 

Introduce  a  man  into  this  school  of  Christ,  and  let 
him  undertake  to  obey  the  Divine  commands  in  his 
business  or  calling  during  the  day,  and  he  will  come 


254  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

back  at  nigbt,  and  say,  "  I  have  failed."  He  will  feel, 
as  all  early  scholars  in  that  school  must,  that  he  has 
an  imperfect  lesson.  But  you  encourage  him,  and  say, 
"  Where  you  failed  to-dayj  you  may  succeed  to-mor- 
row." And  to-morrow  perhaps  he  does  succeed  where 
he  has  failed  to-day ;  but  sin  breaks  out  somewhere 
else  in  his  experience.  So  he  goes  on,  little  by  little, 
in  his  endeavor  to  lead  a  Christian  life ;  but  he  is  made 
to  feel,  to  k]iow,  to  painfully  realize,  how  little  he  can 
do  of  that  which  he  knows  he  ought  to  do,  without 
Divine  help  ;  and  he  appeals  for  help  ;  and  tlie  prayers 
of  such  men  under  such  circumstances  come  up  to  the 
throne  of  grace  with  an  ardor  which  is  irresistible,  and 
God  hears  them.  No  man  can  go  through  Christ's 
school  in  that  way  without  being  convinced  that  he 
has  need  in  his  inward  life. 

VIVID   EXPERIENCES  EXCEPTIONAL. 

Then,  in  advocating  this  mode  of  looking  at  men, 
and  introducing  them  into  the  Christian  course,  the 
question  would  naturally  come  up,  "  Do  you  set  aside 
all  dramatic  experiences  ? "  ISTo,  I  do  not,  at  all !  So 
far  from  it,  I  look  at  them  with  admiration.  I  do  not 
wonder  that  people  covet  them.  I  strove  after  them 
long  enough,  but  I  never  got  them.  And  at  last  I 
learned  to  say,  "  If  it  please  God,  in  the  exercise  of  Di- 
vine sovereignty,  to  bring  a  man  into  a  Christian  life 
in  a  way  conformable  to  his  foregoing  history,  to  his 
temperament,  and  to  the  laws  that  regulate  him,  who 
am  I  that  I  should  call  God's  orthodoxy  in  question  ? 
Has  he  not  a  right  to  call  men  in  any  way  that  suits 
him  ? "     And  if  a  man  is  of  such  a  nature,  if  he  has 


THE   GROWTH    OF   CHRISTIAN   LIFE,  255 

sensibility  such  that  he  has  been  carried  tlirough  devi- 
ous paths,  and  is  brought  at  last  into  such  contingencies 
that  all  at  once  there  is,  by  reason  of  the  instruction 
which  he  has  received,  and  by  reason  of  the  peculiarity 
of  his  organization,  an  intense  conception,  an  inlooldng 
sense  by  which  is  revealed  to  him,  not  simply  the  sin- 
fulness of  his  actions,  but  the  sinfulness  of  his  nature ; 
if  he  is  made  to  feel  the  amplitude  of  sin  in  him  ;  if  he 
wrestles  with  the  consciousness  that  God  is  not  in  all 
his  thoughts,  that  his  soul  hates  God,  and  that  he  will 
not  have  God  to  reign  over  him ;  and  if,  in  that 
mighty  wrestling,  more  wonderful  in  the  darkness  of 
his  soul  than  Jacob's  wrestling  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night  with  the  angel  of  God,  he  is  at  last  conscious 
that  there  is  some  bright,  shooting,  electric  flash  visible 
before  him  which  gives  him  a  sudden  sense  of  the 
beauty  of  God  in  Christ,  of  the  majesty  of  the  Divine 
government,  and  of  the  grandeur  of  the  Christian  life ; 
and  if  there  springs  np  in  him  an  impulse  to  rejoice 
and  glorify  God, —  do  you  ask  me  if  I  believe  that  his 
experience  has  no  validity  ?  It  is  admirable  !  It  is 
beautiful ! 

But  this  I  say  (as  I  shall  show  more  at  length  at  the 
end  of  the  lecture,  if  I  ever  get  to  it),  that  you  are  not 
to  judge  all  experiences  by  special  ones.  You  might 
as  well  say,  having  read  one  of  Milton's  outbursts  of 
the  highest  kind,  "  Now,  I  will  not  call  anything  in  lit- 
erature good  unless  it  is  as  fine  as  that,"  as  to  say  tliat 
you  will  not  recognize  anything  as  conversion  which 
does  not  go  as  high  as  those  experiences  of  which  I 
have  been  speaking.  I  say  that  these  are  exceptional 
cases  ;  and  they  are  genuine,  as  poets  are  genuine  ;  but 


256  LECTUKES  ON  PKE ACHING. 

everybody  is  not  a  poet.  They  are  genuine,  as  invent- 
ors are  genuine;  but  everybody  is  not  an  inventor. 
You  are  not  to  judge  of  the  whole  in  this  matter  by 
single  instances. 

THE   POINT   OF   CHANGE. 

You  will,  then,  perhaps  ask  me,  "  Is  not  this  the 
doctrine  of  '  gradualism '  ?  Do  not  you  believe  in 
preaching  '  immediatism  '  ?  "  With  all  my  heart  I  do. 
I  believe  in  immediate  decisions,  I  believe  in  immedi- 
ate beginnings  ;  but  immediatism  is  simply  a  checking 
or  stoppage  from  going  in  one  direction,  and  beginning 
to  go  in  another. 

Did  you  ever  see  a  vessel  on  the  East  Eiver  beating 
against  the  wind,  and  turning  when  it  was  about  half- 
way across  ?  The  helm  is  put  down,  and  the  sails 
begin  to  shiver,  and  soon  they  become  loose,  so  that 
they  catch  no  wind ;  and  the  craft  is  going  on  and 
going  round,  little  by  little,  until,' by  and  by,  first  the 
jib  takes  the  wind ;  the  craft  still  goes  on  and  round, 
until  finally  the  mainsail  takes  the  wind ;  and  then, 
with  every  sail  full  and  drawing,  off  goes  the  vessel  on 
the  other  tack.  And  unquestionably  there  was  a  defi- 
nite point  of  time  when  she  stopped  going  in  one  direc- 
tion and  commenced  going  in  the  other.  You  might 
not  be  able  to  mark  it ;  but  you  know  that,  philosophi- 
cally, it  must  be  so. 

Where  a  man  is  going  toward  wrong  heartily,  and  he 
is  converted,  there  must  be  a  time  when  he  stops,  and 
means  to  stop  ;  for  nobody  ever  changes  his  course 
from  wrong  to  right  by  accident.  There  must  be  a 
time  when  he  moves,  or  attempts  to  move,  in  the  other 


THE   GROWTH   OF   CHRISTIAN   LIFE.  257 

direction,  no  matter  whether  he  can  tell  what  that  time 
is  or  not,  and  no  matter  whether  there  was  any  great 
convulsion  in  his  experience  or  not.  There  is,  in  the 
case  of  every  man  who  reforms  his  life,  a  point  of 
time  at  which  he  ceases  to  go  in  one  direction  and  be- 
gins to  go  in  the  other  direction.  There  is  the  princi- 
ple of  immediatism  involved  in  every  man's  conver- 
sion; and  those  who  are  w^alking  in  the  ways  of  sin 
should  be  abundantly  plied  to  stop  at  once,  and  at 
once  to  begin  to  walk  in  the  other  direction,  as  the 
first  step  toward  entering  upon  a  better  life,  —  and  for 
this  reason  :  that  what  are  caUed  "  resolutions  "  are  not 
choices ;  they  are  simply  step-stones  to  choices.  That  is 
a  resolution  where  a  man  accepts  an  end  without  any 
reference  to  how  it  shall  be  accomplished.  That  is  a 
choice  where  a  man  accepts  an  end,  and  employs  all 
the  instruments  within  his  reach  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  it.  One  is  without  instrumentality,  and  the 
other  is  with  instrumentality.  Therefore  resolutions 
wither,  while  choices  hold  steadfastly.  And  you  are, 
by  all  the  means  in  your  power,  to  bring  men,  not 
merely  to  vague  resolutions,  not  merely  to  wistfulness, 
not  merely  to  wish  that  they  were  Christians.  I  sup- 
pose there  never  was  a  man  in  the  world,  brought  up 
with  ordinary  morality,  that  did  not  wish  that  he  was 
a  Christian.  There  never  was  a  beggar  in  the  world, 
probably,  that  did  not  wish  that  he  was  rich  enough  to 
make  it  needless  for  him  to  beg.  There  never  was  a 
lazy  man  who  did  not  wish  that  he  was  industrious. 
There  never  was  a  drunkard  who  did  not  wish  that  he 
was  temperate.  There  never  was  a  man  who  had  lost 
his  reputation  that  did  not  wish  that  he  was  reputable. 

Q 


258  LECTURES  ON  PEEACHING. 

There  never  was  a  man  of  any  sort  who  did  not  wish 
for  something  better.  But  wishing  is  invalid.  Choos- 
ing is  the  thing. 

URGENCY  FOR  DECISION. 

Now,  when  you  see  men  set  in  upon  from  every  side ; 
when  you  see  how  everything  is  working  on  them  con- 
tinually ;  when  you  see  how  strong  are  the  tendencies 
of  business ;  when  you  see  what  rivalries  there  are  in 
the  spheres  of  ingenuity  and  industry;  when  you  see 
what  vast  pressures  are  brought  to  bear  on  men  by  the 
love  of  wife  and  children,  and  by  their  companionships, 
congenial  and  otherwise  ;  when  you  see  how  the  great 
round  globe  is  filled  with  all  manner  of  the  most  stim- 
ulating forces,  which  are  molding  and  shaping  the 
lives  of  men ;  when  you  see  that  while,  on  one  day  of 
the  week,  their  attention  is  called  to  higher  themes  and 
they  form  purposes  of  right  living,  the  other  six  days, 
like  six  squadrons,  come  down  upon  them  and  sweep 
all  those  purposes  away,  —  under  such  circumstances,  it 
is  necessary  that  you,  as  ministers  of  Christ,  charged 
with  the  care  of  men's  souls,  should  concentrate  every 
influence  possible  to  bring  them  to  an  immediate  de- 
cision. 

But  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  an  immediate 
decision  to  do  right  is  not  an  immediate  formation  of 
a  right  character.  The  preparations  for  a  decision, 
and  the  consequences  of  choice,  may  be  to  any  extent 
gradual ;  but  the  choice  itself,  the  subscribing  of  one's 
name  on  the  roll  of  Christ,  the  writing  of  it  where  it 
shall  not  be  effaced  in  this  world, —  this  should  and  will 
be  instantaneous. 


THE   GROWTH   OF   CHRISTIAN   LIFE.  259 


EARNEST  PREACHING. 

I  know  that  persons  often  think  there  is  a  want  of 
dignity  in  this  commanding  men  to  repent ;  that  there 
is  in  it  a  lack  of  respect  for  persons'  individuality ;  that 
it  would  be  better  if  you  should  bring  your  sermon  as  a 
bundle  of  thoughts,  and  lay  it  down  at  men's  feet,  and 
leave  them  to  exercise  their  own  free  agency  as  to 
whether  they  shall  accept  your  teaching  or  not.  It  is 
thought  to  be  scarcely  dignified  and  philosophical  to 
spread  out  the  cool  and  calm  considerations  of  duty 
before  a  congregation. 

To  act  upon  the  course  which  is  implied  by  these  ob- 
jections would  be  exactly  as  though  a  general,  dead 
in  earnest,  should  send  a  wheelbarro^ful  of  rifle-balls 
across  his  line  to  the  enemy,  and  say,  "  We  do  not 
intend  to  fire  at  you ;  please  kill  yourselves  with  these 
balls  ! " 

For  what  is  a  preacher  ordained  ?  Christ  says :  "  Fol- 
low me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men."  I  think 
I  see  one  of  these  dilettante  men,  one  of  these  modern 
eunuchs  of  sermons,  who  sits  and  walks  before  his  con- 
gregation in  such  a  way  as  not  to  disturb  their  equa- 
nimity, or  to  force  upon  them  any  considerations  which 
are  not  agreeable  to  them.  I  can  imagine  one  of  them 
going  forth,  and  sitting  down  on  the  bank  of  the  stream 
where  trout  are  to  be  found,  and  saying  to  them,  "  O 
trout !  here  am  I,  and  here  is  my  basket ;  please  come 
forth,  in  the  exercise  of  your  trout  nature,  and  get  into 
it "  ;  and  I  can  imagine  him  to  go  back  home  again,  and 
say,  "  Pleasant  was  the  meadow,  and  pearly  was  the 
stream,  but  the  fish  were  proud,  and  signified  their  in- 


260  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

tention  not  to  come  forth;  and  I  respect  tlieir  indi- 
viduality." For  my  part,  I  do  not  believe  in  the 
manliness  of  any  such  mode  of  preaching  the  gospel. 
It  comes  from  the  effeminate  philosophy  of  an  effete 
manhood.  I  believe  in  downright  power ;  and  if  God 
'  gave  it  to  you,  exercise  it.  I  believe  that  I  have  as 
much  right  to  bombard  your  hearts  as  ever  Grant  had 
to  bombard  Petersburg,  by  the  artillery  which  I  can 
bring  to  bear  upon  them  through  the  reason,  through 
the  moral  sense,  through  the  sesthetic  or  the  beautiful, 
through  taste,  through  any  faculty  which  belongs  to 
human  nature.  It  is  fair  play.  My  purpose  is  as  noble 
as  that  which  any  man  can  have.  No  historic  hero  has 
such  a  purpose  as  every  Christian  minister  has  ;  for 
when  empires  fall  and  thrones  crumble,  souls  will  live. 
When  all  literature  is  gone,  when  the  memorials  of 
Westminster  are  forgotten,  when  everything  in  this 
world  is  swept  into  oblivion,  God  will  live  to  rescue 
man  from  destruction,  and  bring  him  home  to  eternal 
glory.  If  a  man's  whole  thought  is  of  the  cold  pages 
of  Cambridge-printed  books,  that  is  one  thing ;  but  if 
his  thought  is  of  heaven,  immortality,  and  God  re- 
vealed in  Christ,  then  I  tell  you  he  had  better  be  in 
earnest,  or  he  had  better  be  out  of  the  pulpit. 

GRADUAL   CONCESSION. 

But  it  will  be  asked,  "  Is  there  no  place  for  gradual- 
ism, then  ? "  Yes,  there  is  a  place  for  gradualism,  if 
you  choose  to  call  it  so.  There  is  that  which  will  have 
the  effect,  at  any  rate,  of  gradualism.  I  mean  simply 
this :  that  I  believe,  very  thoroughly,  in  such  an  early 
conversion,  or  such  an  early  turning  to  God,  that  you 


THE  GROWTH   OF   CHRISTIAN  LIFE.  261 

can  hardly  call  it  the  action  of  the  will,  though  it  is 
that.  AVhen  the  outer  umbilical  cord  is  cut,  the  inner 
one  is  not  cut ;  and  after  the  child  is  born,  it  feeds  from 
the  mother's  soul  through  years  and  years,  as  before  it 
was  born  it  fed  from  her  veins.  A  child  that  is  of  a 
devout  and  loving  nature,  brought  up  at  the  knee  of  a 
devout  and  loving  mother,  is  early  inclined  to  God ;  and  it 
is  so  trained  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord, 
that  it  never  knows,  and  never  ought  to  knoM',  the  time 
when  it  did  not  sweetly  think  of  God,  and  attempt  to 
conform  itself  to  the  pattern  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
If  you  can  begin  with  a  child,  and  train  it  in  right 
ways  while  its  experiences  are  yet  nascent,  while  it 
wills  through  the  mother's  will,  and  thinks  through  the 
mother's  thought,  by  and  by  it  comes  to  a  point  where  it 
cannot  distinguish  between  what  is  itself  and  what  is 
her  influence.  If  you  can  bring  up  a  child  in  that  way, 
it  grows  year  by  year,  step  by  step,  and  becomes  a 
Christian,  though  no  one  can  tell  precisely  when  the  re- 
generating change  took  place. 

I  have  seen  persons  of  the  most  beautiful  life,  of  a 
transparent  disposition,  Christ-like,  devout,  and  having 
every  attribute  of  true  Christian  character,  come  before 
the  Examining  Committee  of  my  church.  I  had  on  that 
committee  good,  most  excellent  men  ;  but  they  had  been 
trained  in  the  old-fashioned  way  of  questioning  candi- 
dates for  church  membership.  I  recollect  a  man  (he  is 
in  heaven  now,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  has  laughed 
at  himself  before  this)  who  invariably  put  this  inquiry, 
"Do  you  remember  the  time  when  you  felt  hatred 
toward  God  ?  "  I  have  seen  persons  start  up,  and  say, 
in  reply  to  that  question,  "  Why,  no,  sir  ! "     They  were 


262  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING, 

scared.  Tliey  remember  the  time  when  they  felt  hatred 
toward  God !  But  this  man  never  covdd  be  made  to 
think  that  genuine  work  had  been  wrought  in  persons 
who  had  not  gone  through  that  peculiar  experience. 

I  can  conceive  that  a  man  who  has  grown  unre- 
strained, and  developed  self-will  in  a  feeling  of  inde- 
pendence, has  thrown  off  the  claims  of  God,  resisting 
them  with  strong  passions  and  animal  forces,  —  I  can 
conceive  how  such  a  man,  when  at  last  those  claims 
were  brought  home  to  him,  and  the  terrible  consequences 
of  his  course  were  revealed  to  him,  so  that  a  great 
struggle  was  produced  in  him,  he  neither  being  able  to 
let  religion  go  nor  to  submit  to  its  requirements,  —  I 
can  conceive  how  he  might  have  develojDed  in  him,  not 
only  a  conscious  resistance  to  God's  will,  but  defiance 
of  God.  But  how  one  who  has  been  brought  up  at  his 
mother's  knee  ;  whose  earliest  years  were  years  of  love 
to  Christ  Jesus ;  whose  every  thought  has  been  ad- 
dressed to  the  subject  of  right  and  wrong,  and  who  has 
constantly  endeavored  to  avoid  the  wrong  and  to  do  the 
right;  who  has  invariably  asked  himself  what  Christ 
would  think ;  who  has  been  reared  from  childhood  in 
the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  —  how  such  a 
saint  could  be  supposed  to  remember  having  ever  felt 
hatred  toward  God  I  cannot  understand;  and  to  put 
such  a  question  to  such  a  one  is  a  desecration  of  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

So  that  it  is  as  easy  for  persons  to  be  converted  and 
not  know  it,  as  it  is  for  you  to  pass  from  one  kingdom 
to  another  in  the  night,  and  not  know  it.  There  is  a 
heavy  snow-storm  in  winter,  and  the  fences  are  all 
obliterated,  and   there   are   no  visible  boundaries   be- 


THE   GEOWTH   OF   CHEISTIAN   LIFE.  263 

tween  farm  and  farm,  and  a  man  starts  out  and  goes 
to  the  house  of  a  neighbor ;  he  does  not  know  when  he 
passes  that  point  which  separates  between  his  ground 
and  that  neighbor's. 

THE   USE   OF   FEELING. 

But  you  say,  "  Do  you  suppose  that  a  person  can  go 
into  the  Christian  life  as  easy  as  that  ?  Must  there  not 
be  feeling  ? "  Well,  certainly  ;  but  I  beg  you  to  under- 
stand that  the  function  of  right  feeling  in  life  is  to 
incite  persons  to  right  courses.  In  and  of  itself  it  has 
no  value,  unless  it  be  to  produce  happiness  in  men,  or 
right  conduct  leading  to  happiness. 

How  much  feeling,  then,  must  a  man  have  ?  Just  as 
much  as  is  necessary.  How  much  steam  must  a  little 
yacht  have  ?  Just  as  much  as  will  turn  the  machinery 
and  propel  the  hull.  But  the  steam  required  by  that 
yacht  would  not  be  a  thimbleful  for  an  ocean  steamer 
of  five  thousand  tons.  How  much  must  that  steamer 
have  ?  Enough  to  turn  its  ponderous  machinery.  How 
much  feeling  must  a  man  have  ?  Enough  to  turn  him 
from  wrong  to  right.  All  beyond  what  is  required  for 
that  is  surplusage. 

I  build  a  mill  on  the  river  Bantam,  where  I  caught 
my  first  fish  ;  and  all  the  year  round  that  river  supplies 
the  motive-power  which  is  necessary  to  propel  the  wheel 
of  that  mill,  and  it  turns  and  grinds  continually  ;  but 
suppose  I  should  build  my  mill  on  the  river  Amazon, 
would  I  be  any  better  off  ?  No  ;  for  I  have  all  tlie  water 
that  the  mill  wants  in  the  Bantam  ;  and  all  that  the 
Amazon  had  more  than  that  would  be  waste,  and  would 
not  do  the  least  particle  of  good. 


264  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

All  that  feeling  is  good  for  is  to  produce  motion.  It 
is  motive-power.  It  is  impulse.  But  persons  have  an 
impression  that  it  has  a  certain  kind  of  cleansing  power, 
so  that  if  a  man  is  aroused  to  a  sense  of  his  sinfulness, 
and  is  steeped  in  it,  there  is  some  sort  of  an  effect  like 
that  which  is  produced  when  yarn  is  put  into  the  dye- 
vat,  where  it  must  be  allowed  to  soak,  and  soak,  in 
order  to  have  the  colors  strike  through.  Men  seem  to 
think  that  conviction  is  a  vat,  and  that  the  sinner  must 
soak  in  it  for  an  indefinite  period,  in  order  to  be  thor- 
oughly converted. 

But  this  is  a  mistake.  I  will  give  an  instance  which 
will  illustrate  what  I  mean. 

A  strong  man  in  Ohio,  a  lawyer  of  repute  and  an 
infidel,  went  to  the  nearest  county  seat  on  court  busi- 
ness. "While  there,  he  went  to  spend  an  evening  with 
an  old  friend,  a  farmer,  and  a  member  of  the  church. 
When  the  hour  for  retiring  came,  the  farmer  thought 
in  himself,  "  This  man  is  one  of  the  greatest  geniuses 
in  the  State ;  and  I  know  his  opinions  ;  how  can  I 
read  and  pray  in  his  presence  ?  "  But  he  felt  it  to  be 
his  duty ;  so,  with  fear  and  trembling,  he  took  down 
his  Bible,  and  said  to  the  man, "  It  is  our  time  for  even- 
ing worship,  will  you  join  with  us  ? "  Now,  this  man, 
although  he  was  an  unbeliever,  was  a  gentleman,  and 
he  expressed  himself  pleased  to  unite  with  the  family 
in  their  religious  exercises.  The  farmer  read,  with  a 
tremulous  voice,  a  chapter  ;  and  then  knelt  down,  half 
scared,  and  prayed,  not  knowing  whether  he  Avas  pray- 
ing to  God,  or  whether  he  was  praying  away  from  the 
lawyer.  He  got  through  the  service,  however,  although 
it  cost  him  a  severe  effort ;  but  the  effect  on  the  lawyer 


THE    GROWTH    OF    CHRISTIAN    LIFE.  2G5 

was  powerful.  He  said  to  liimself,  "  I  know  this  man, 
and  he  knows  me ;  and  he  never  would  have  done  this 
if  he  had  not  had  a  conviction  that  it  was  his  duty.  He 
had  no  purpose  to  gain  ;  he  sacrificed  his  feelings  by 
doing  it.  There  must  be  something  in  religion  to  enable 
a  man  to  do  such  a  thing."  And  the  more  he  thouglit 
of  it,  the  more  his  spiritual  sense  was  opened  ;  and  as 
there  was  a  revival  being  held  in  the  place,  he  went  to 
one  of  the  conference-meetings ;  and  at  the  close  he 
stood  up  and  declared  that  God  had  illuminated  his 
mind,  and  that  he  was  resolved  from  that  time  forth 
to  live  a  Christian  life.  He  had  not  gone  through 
any  tremendous  wrestling  or  feeling ;  he  was  con- 
scious of  on  great  swelling  gulf-stream  that  was  sweep- 
ing him  to  damnation;  he  had  no  such  experience 
as  persons  who  have  purposely  lived  wicked  lives 
often  have ;  but  do  you  not  think  that  he  had  feeling 
enough  ? 

Let  me  put  it  in  anotlier  way.  Many  men  mourn  that 
they  have  not  had  a  fearful  experience.  Tliey  think 
tliey  are  shallow  Christians  because  they  have  never 
had  such  a  sense  of  sinfulness  as  they  hear  other  people 
talk  of. 

Here  are  my  two  boys.  Both  of  them  have  been 
quarreling,  and  they  have  both  in  tlieir  quarrel  done 
great  injustice  to  some  neighbor's  children.  I  bring  in 
the  older  one,  and  he  denies  it.  I  convict  liim,  after  a 
great  deal  of  wrangling.  He  stands  out  against  my  per- 
suasion. He  will  not  confess  his  fault.  Finally,  after 
much  threatening  and  whipping,  I  subdue  him,  and 
bring  him  to  a.  confession  and  to  a  promise. 

The  other  boy  comes  in,  and  I  say,  "  My  son,  such 

VOL.    III.  12 


266  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

and  siicli  things  are  said  in  respect  to  you."  He  begins 
to  blush  the  moment  I  commence  to  speak ;  and  as  soon 
as  he  hears  me  through,  or  before  I  am  done  with  my 
statement,  the  tears  roll  down  his  cheeks,  and  he  says, 
"  Father,  it  is  true,  and  I  am  ashamed  of  myself.  I  did 
what  I  am  accused  of,  and  I  am  thoroughly  sorry  for 
it."     And  that  is  the  last  of  it. 

Now,  I  want  to  know  which  of  these  two  brothers 
has  had  the  best  time,  which  has  acted  the  most  hon- 
orably, which  is  the  most  manly,  and  which  gives  token 
of  the  greatest  moral  health  ?  And  yet  there  are  many 
persons  who  think  that  there  is  a  great  advantage  in 
being  put  into  a  caldron  of  conviction,  and  bubbling  and 
boiling  and  stewing  there,  and  that  tliey  are  good  Chris- 
tians in  proportion  as  they  are  mean,  and  refuse  to  sub- 
mit to  magnanimity  and  honor  and  manhood. 

The  moment  right  and  wrong  are  made  clear  to  a 
man,  the  moment  he  sees  the  celestial  life  standing  over 
against  the  animal  life,  quick  as  a  flash  liis  thought 
should  go  from  the  wrong  to  the  right.  The  quicker 
you  can  go  out  of  a  wrong  course  into  a  right  one,  and 
the  less  of  punitive  experience  you  require  to  lead  you 
to  make  the  change,  the  better.  It  is  all  wrong,  this 
notion  that  a  man  must  wait  a  great  while  for  feeling, 
or  for  more  feeling,  before  he  sets  out  in  the  Christian 
life. 

Say  to  men,  "  Spread  sail ;  and  if  there  is  wind  of 
feeling  enough  to  take  you  out  of  the  channel  into  the 
ocean,  avail  yourself  of  it.  No  matter  how  slight  the 
wind  may  be,  make  sail ;  and  so  long  as  you  have 
enough  to  carry  your  vessel,  you  would  not  be  any 
better  off  if  there  was  a  gale." 


THE  GROWTH   OF   CHRISTUN   LIFE.  267 


EVIDENCES   OF   CONVERSION. 

And  now,  as  to  the  evidence  which  men  will  develop, 
and  which  you  are  to  search  for :  In  the  beginning  of 
a  man's  career  in  the  Christian  life,  when  he  first  com- 
mences to  form  purposes  of  reformation,  you  are  to  see 
what  knowledge  he  has  in  that  direction ;  and  it  will 
develop  itself  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  You  must  remem- 
ber the  infirmities  of  men.  For  example,  one  man 
comes  to  me,  and  I  ask  him  what  about  the  Christian 
scheme,  and  about  the  history  of  Christ,  and  find  that 
he  knows  comparatively  little  about  these  things.  I 
find  that  he  is  determined  to  be  a  Christian  and  wants 
to  join  the  church.  I  say  to  him,  "Joining  the  church 
is  not  religion."  "  I  know  that,"  he  says  ;  "  but  I  am 
going  to  join  the  church  and  be  a  better  man."  He 
knows  very  little  about  repentance,  and  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  but  he  has  a  vague  feeling  that  the 
church  represents  the  whole  Christian  life.  He  is  fum- 
bling about  and  feeling  his  w^ay  in  the  dark;  he  is 
blind ;  he  needs  light ;  and  my  business  is  to  look  on 
him,  as  God  does,  with  great  tenderness,  and  lead  him 
along.  He  has  a  purpose,  and  it  only  needs  that  he 
shall  have  intelligence ;  and  my  business  is  to  admin- 
ister it  to  him,  as  he  can  bear  it,  little  by  little.  This 
being  done,  he  will  be  saved. 

It  is  often  asked  of  a  person  that  is  being  examined, 
"  How  long  do  you  think  it  has  been  since  you  became 
a  Christian  ?  "  "  About  two  months."  "  Do  you  recol- 
lect the  particular  time  when  you  became  a  Christian  ? " 
"  Well,  I  think  it  was  on  such  a  day."  "  Do  you  remem- 
ber the  circumstances  under  which  you  were  converted  ? " 


268  LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

"  I  think  it  was  under  such  and  such  circumstances." 
"  Did  you  have  any  very  deep  experiences  ?  "  "I  can- 
not say  tliat  I  did.  I  felt  that  I  was  a  sinner,  and 
that  I  was  in  need  of  forgiveness ;  and  I  resolved  to 
live  a  Christian  life."  "  Have  you  had  any  great  joy 
since  ? "  "  Not  as  much  as  I  wish  I  had."  "  Do  you 
love  to  read  your  Bible  ?  "  "  Sometimes  I  do."  "  Some- 
times ?  Do  not  you  like  to  read  it  always  .?  "  "  I  do 
not  know  that  I  do." 

Then  the  examining  committee  set  to  work  to  make 
the  man  insincere.  That  was  a  good  honest  answer.  I 
like  those  persons  who  answer  against  themselves  hon- 
estly. But  the  committee  are  not  satisfied.  They  think 
it  necessary  to  "  search  that  thing  out,"  as  they  say ; 
and  they  put  the  question  again.  "  Do  not  you  always 
love  to  read  the  word  of  God  ? "  There  is  not  a  man 
Avho  asks  the  question  that  does.  You  might  as  well 
ask  me,  "  Are  not  you  always  hungry  ?  "  Then  they 
say,  "  Do  you  love  to  pray  ? "  "  Yes,  sir."  "  Do  you 
love  to  be  where  God's  people  are  ? "  That  is  the 
tougliest  question  of  all ! 

If  a  poor  ignorant  man  told  me  that  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian, and  wanted  to  go  into  the  church,  I  would  say, 
"  That  is  evidence  to  me."  On  the  other  hand,  if  an 
intelligent  person  said  that  he  liked  to  read  the  Bible, 
that  he  liked  to  pray,  that  he  liked  to  be  in  the  church, 
and  so  on,  I  should  not  consider  that  as  evidence.  I 
should  give  Aveight  to  the  testimony  of  each  according 
to  the  place  which  he  occupied,  and  the  circumstances 
by  which  he  was  surrounded.  In  order  to  judge  of  a 
man's  piety  and  of  his  fitness  to  go  into  the  church,  I 
want  to  know  his  disposition.    I  want  to  know  whether 


THE   GROWTH   OF   CHRISTIAN   LIFE.  269 

he  has  reconciled  himself  in  regard  to  that  ten  years' 
quarrel  with  his  neighbor.  I  want  to  know  if  he  has 
ETone  and  confessed  to  that  man  to  whom  he  told  a  lie. 
I  want  to  know  whether  he  has  returned  with  interest 
the  five  thousand  dollars  which  he  embezzled  when  he 
settled  that  estate,  and  whether  he  has  made  confession 
to  the  parties  concerned. 

I  have  had  to  distribute  much  money  which  had 
been  unjustly  obtained  or  withheld.  Persons  on  com- 
ing into  my  church  have  said  that  they  had  defrauded 
men  with  whom  they  had  had  dealings,  and  have  dele- 
gated me  to  carry  the  money  of  which  they  were  un- 
justly possessed  to  the  rightful  owners. 

I  recollect  a  man  who  came  to  me  and  said,  "  I  was 
in  a  certain  firm,  and  we  did  a  commission  business  ;  and 
there  were  three  or  four  occasions  on  which  I  know  we 
received  a  good  deal  of  money  which  belonged  to  our 
customers.  I  cannot  tell  you  who  my  partners  were, 
because  it  is  not  for  me  to  inculpate  them ;  but  I  want 
you  to  take  so  much  money  (giving  me  the  amount) 
and  pay  it  out  so  and  so  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to 
be  a  Christian ;  I  feel  that  a  Christian  must  be  honest ; 
and  I  want  you  to  see  such  and  sucli  men  and  give  them 
this  money  without  any  name."  It  was  a  very  interest- 
ing interview  that  I  had  with  one  of  the  men,  because 
the  effect  was  to  break  him  down  and  bring  him  under 
conviction.  It  was  a  gospel  to  him.  I  went  into  his 
counting-house,  and  said,  "  I  have  a  very  pleasant  duty 
to  perform.  There  is  a  man  uniting  with  my  church 
who  thinks  he  is  a  Christian,  who  is  trying  to  live  a 
Christian  life,  and  who  says  he  has  defrauded  you.  This 
is  the  amount  of  the  principal,  and  this  is  the  interest." 


270  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

The  man  sat  and  trembled  a  moment,  and  then  he  said, 
"  Who  is  he  ?  For  God's  sake,  tell  me  his  name."  "  No, 
sir,"  I  said,  "  I  cannot  tell  you  his  name."  The  man 
cried  like  a  child.  "  Well,':  said  he,  "  that  means  some- 
thing. —  Partner,  come  here."  The  partner  came,  and  he 
Jiad  to  tell  it  all  over  to  him.  This  man  himself  came 
to  my  church  and  began  to  believe  in  religion.  This 
instance  was  so  different  from  anything  that  he  had 
met  M^ith  before,  that  he  thought,  after  all,  there  must 
be  something  in  Christianity,  although  no  such  impres- 
sion had  been  made  upon  him  before  that  time.  For, 
where  men  do  business  and  find  that  deacons  cheat 
them,  tliat  leading  men  in  the  church  cheat  them,  and 
that  they  have  to  look  out  as  sharp  for  members  of  the 
church  as  for  anybody  else  (and  a  little  sharper,  because, 
having  everything  settled  up  above,  they  think  they  can 
take  a  little  more  liberty  down  here),  then  it  is  hard  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  them  effectively ;  but  when  you 
bring  evidence  to  worldly  business  men  that  there  is 
among  Christians  self-denial,  self-sacrifice,  and  humilia- 
tion, not  only  before  God  but  before  men,  it  is  like  a 
gospel  to  them. 

DISPOSITION   THE   CRITERION. 

In  judging  of  a  man's  character  as  a  Christian,  there- 
fore, I  inquire,  first,  "  Is  your  purpose  right  ?  "  and  sec- 
ondly, "  Is  your  disposition  conformable  to  that  pur- 
pose ?  "  I  hardly  ever  put  the  same  questions  to  one 
man  that  I  do  to  another. 

Every  man,  therefore,  who  is  typical  of  a  class 
must  be  treated  according  to  his  disposition.  Some 
men  are  cold  ;  and  if  they  are  Christ's,  they  will  begin 


THE   GROWTH   OF   CHRISTIAN  LIFE.  271 

to  thaw  out,  and  be  genial.  Some  men  are  very  selfish, 
proper,  and  exceedingly  excellent;  and  if  they  really 
become  Christians,  you  will  see  the  steams  and  mists 
rising  which  indicate  the  action  of  April  on  the  frozen 
ground.  There  are  some  men  who  are  proud  and  arro- 
gant ;  and  if  they  have  Christ's  spirit  in  them,  they 
will  begin  to  be  condescending  and  gentle. 

Now,  I  do  not  look  for  the  ground  to  thaw  four  feet 
deep  in  a  second.  If  it  thaws  an  inch  deep  in  a  day, 
I  say,  "Very  well,  let  it  go  on,  and  keep  going  on, 
under  the  warmth  of  the  sun."  And  if  a  man's  purpose 
is  right,  and  he  is,  in  his  daily  life,  fulfilling  that  pur- 
pose, and  finding  out  his  duty  more  and  more,  I  am 
content,  and  I  say  of  him,  "He  is  converted." 

So  much  for  Eepentance,  and  so  much  for  the  doc- 
trine of  Conversion. 

AFTER-DEVELOPMENT. 

There  is  one  more  point  that  I  wish  to  propound 
(unless  that  bell  means  that  you  must  go.  You  can 
stay,  can  you  ?  Very  well.  You  will  have  me  here 
only  twice  after  to-day,  and  perhaps  you  can  afford  to 
bear  a  little  more  weariness  in  these  last  lectures).  I 
want  to  say,  in  regard  to  the  after-development  of 
Christian  life,  that  we  are  too  apt,  as  soon  as  men  are 
converted,  and  brought  into  the  fold,  to  feel,  "  Xow  they 
are  all  safe,  and  we  will  look  out  for  others."  "We  are 
forever  dragging  the  net,  and  never  scaling  and  packing 
down  our  fish.  We  are  working  to  save  men's  souls  on 
the  theory  that  when  a  man  has  a  very  slight  moral 
impression  made  on  hira,  and  he  swells  the  number  of 
our  church,  we  are  to  take  it  for  granted  that  his  soul 


272  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

is  saved.  I  do  not  feel  so  at  all.  I  feel  that  we  are 
more  responsible  for  a  person  when  once  we  have  him 
in  the  church  than  we  were  before.  And  frequently  he 
is  in  more  danger ;  because  if  he  is  wrong,  and  he  thinks 
he  is  right,  all  those  influences  which  otherwise  would 
naturally  tend  to  condemn  him  cease  to  operate  on 
him.  Such  a  man  is  in  great  danger  in  the  church  ;  and 
your  work  must  especially  continue  with  him. 

And  in  regard  to  the  higher  life  in  a  church,  let  me 
say,  that  by  maintaining  the  whole  membership  active, 
and  keeping  fresh  before  their  minds  that  they  are  fol- 
lowing Christ,  not  in  their  corporate  church  capacity, 
but  each  one  in  the  field  where  Christ  put  him,  their 
development  in  that  higher  life  will  be  promoted.  A 
boy  is  following  Christ  as  a  boy,  at  home,  at  school, 
wherever  he  is,  and  therefore  his  experiences  and  de- 
velopments must  be  there,  and  not  somewhere  else. 
A  mother  who  cannot  go  to  meeting,  but  is  at  home 
bearing  and  nursing  children,  has  her  church  in  that 
particular  workshop.  In  those  special  ways  in  which 
her  duties  are  to  be  performed,  she  is  to  develop  this 
higher  life  of  consecration  to  God,  through  benevolence, 
and  faith,  and  love,  and  hope.  A  mechanic  or  day- 
laborer  finds  his  altar  in  precisely  those  relations  in 
which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  he  is  placed.  The 
business  man  has  his  temptations  and  victories,  and  in 
those  temptations  and  victories,  for  the  most  part,  his 
higher  disposition  is  to  be  unfolded.  We  are  to  make 
men  feel  that  while  the  churcli  is  the  great  feeding- 
ground  of  the  world,  the  world  of  business  is  the  drill- 
ing-ground where  the  strength  of  those  who  are  in  the 
church  is  to  be  used.     We  are  to  make  them  feel  that 


THE   GROWTH   OF  CHRISTIAN  LIFE.  273 

that  love  is  poor  and  superficial  which  does  not  actuate 
their  every-day  life  ;  that  being  a  Christian  is  carrying 
one's  self  lovingly  in  the  place  where  God  put  his  or- 
dinary life,  and  performing  the  duties  of  the  higher  life 
with  a  full  beneficence  and  consecration ;  that,  to  be  a 
true  worshiper  of  God,  one  must  carry  the  spirit  of  the 
Sabbath  into  all  the  week,  and  not  act  as  if  Sunday 
were  the  sacred  day,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  days  un- 
sacred.  We  are  to  make  them  feel  that  they  are  to  take 
their  religion  to  their  business,  and  that  the  sphere  of 
their  business  is  the  place  where  their  religion  should 
develop  itself. 

THE   HIGHER  LIFE. 

Then  comes  the  transcendent  experience  of  Chris- 
tians. I  have  spoken  somewhat  slightingly  in  your 
presence,  I  am  afraid,  of  perfectionism.  I  have  known 
instances  in  which  I  did  not  sufficiently  measure  my 
words ;  and  it  may  be  that  I  have  used  language  which 
might  be  construed  as  tlirowing  contempt  upon  perfec- 
tionists. But  far  be  it  from  me  to  speak  with  con- 
tempt, I  would  rather  speak  with  admiration,  of  what 
may  more  fitly  be  called  the  higher  forms  of  the  de- 
velopment of  Christian  experience.  There  is,  I  be- 
lieve, as  much  a  genius  for  the  higher  developments 
of  Christianity  —  that  is,  for  the  higher  natural  devel- 
opments of  the  human  mind  —  as  there  is  for  develop- 
ments of  any  other  kind.  Some  of  the  higher  Chris- 
tian developments  in  men  are  of  transcendent  beauty, 
and  are  not  to  be  cried  down,  unless  those  who  pos- 
sess them  make  them  cruel  and  despotic ;  but  they  are 
not  possible  to  all. 

12*  B 


274  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

For  example,  no  man  who  is  misadjusted  in  his  origi- 
nal structure,  no  man  the  problem  of  whose  life  con- 
sists in  harmonizing  his  own  antagonistic  faculties,  will 
be  able  to  develop  the  quality  of  serenity  in  life  except 
to  a  limited  degree ;  while  on  the  other  hand  a  man 
whose  original  structure  is  well  adjusted,  and  whose 
faculties  are  naturally  harmonious,  will  be  able  to  de- 
velop that  quality  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection. 

I  once  had  come  to  my  lecture-room  a  lady  whose 
business  was  to  preach  the  higher  life ;  and  I  think  I 
never  saw  so  sweet  and  seraphic  a  face  as  that  of  this 
woman.  Slie  stood  in  the  presence  of  my  congregation 
and  talked ;  and  it  was  like  a  vision  of  angels  to  hear 
her  voice.  It  did  me  good  all  tlirough  to  witness  her 
serene,  simple  rejoicing  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  observe 
the  intense  conviction  wliich  she  had,  that  as  she  M^as, 
so  everybody  could  be.  She  was  mistaken  in  this ; 
but  it  was  a  mistake  which  came  from  the  simplicity 
and  generosity  of  her  heart;  and  she,  under  the  full 
power  of  faith  and  love  in  Jesus  Christ,  rose  to  an 
experience  as  unique  as  Mozart's  musical  talent,  that 
was  real,  but  not  universal.  It  was  special  to  her  by 
reason  of  a  foregoing  preparation  for  it  in  her  nature, 
organization,  endowment,  and  communion  Avith  God. 

I  should  rejoice  to  see  a  church  made  np  of  such 
persons  ;  but  am  I  to  say  to  my  beloved  people,  "  Here 
is  what  you  must  all  come  to.  You  can  every  one  of 
you  come  to  this,  and  it  is  your  fault  and  sin  if  you  do 
not  come  to  it "  ?  I  might  as  well  read  one  of  Shake- 
speare's dramas  in  a  village  school,  and  say  to  the  boys, 
"  Not  one  of  you  may  think  that  he  is  educated  until 
he  can  write  such  a  drama  as  that."     But  how  many 


THE   GROWTH   OF   CHKISTIAN   LIFE.  275 

men  in  the  history  of  the  world  could  do  that  ?  I 
might  as  well  examine  a  boy  in  Newton's  Princijyici, 
and  say,  "  There  is  what  you  are  to  come  to,  and  you 
will  be  sinful  if  you  do  not  come  to  it." 

These  things  are  not  general,  but  special.  Yet  it  is 
a  great  comfort  to  me,  in  my  struggles  with  myself,  in 
my  attempt  to  chord  my  own  varying  powers,  to  know 
that  such  struggles  have  resulted  in  harmony  in  others. 
I  know  that  it  is  real,  and  I  have  hope.  There  was 
never  anything  that  so  nearly  killed  me  as  trying  to  be 
Jonathan  Edwards.  I  did  try  hard.  Then  I  tried  to 
be  Brainard ;  then  I  tried  to  be  James  Brainard  Tay- 
lor; then  I  tried  to  be  Payson;  then  I  tried  to  be 
Henry  Martyn  ;  and  then  I  gave  up,  and  succeeded  in 
being  nothing  but  just  myself. 

Yet  every  man  must  feel  that  he  can  raise  himself 
higher  and  higher.  Do  not  allow  people  to  feel  that 
there  are  no  higher  attainments  than  they  have  reached. 
Do  not  allow  them  to  feel  that  there  is  no  liigher  rest 
of  soul  into  which  they  can  ascend. 

If  any  rise  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection,  let  it  be 
maintained,  and  maintained,  too,  with  humility,  for  I 
have  seen  persons  that  claimed  to  have  perfection  who 
were  puffed  up,  and  about  whom,  in  their  social  ways, 
there  was  an  ineffable  odor  of,  "  Don't  you  wish  you 
were  as  good  as  I  am  ?  "  See  that  the  higher  life  does 
not  degenerate  into  anything  unworthy;  and  see,  also, 
that  it  does  not  discourage  anybody ;  and  that  you 
do  not  teach  your  people  that  their  feeling  must  be 
just  so  or  it  is  good  for  nothing. 

All  feehngs  that  aim  in  the  right  direction  are  rec- 
ognized and  blessed  of  God,  from  the  lowest  to  the 


276  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

highest.  The  same  sun  that  moves  round  and  round 
the  world,  and  shines  on  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  on  the 
mighty  live-oaks  of  Florida,  and  on  the  immense  se- 
quoias of  California,  also  shines  on  the  moss  and  the 
lichen ;  and  the  love  of  God  broods  over  all  men,  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest. 


XI. 


CHRISTIAN  MANHOOD. 

March  18,  1874. 
THE   AIM   OF   PAUL'S   MINISTRY. 

CANNOT  trace  in  the  Apostle  Paul's  writ- 
ings the  slightest  effect  of  his  visit  among 
the  Greeks.  He  does  not  seem  to  have 
seen,  or  if  he  saw  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
felt,  or  if  he  felt  he  felt  only  giancingly  and  super- 
ficially, the  physical  and  visible  beauty  which  was 
developed  among  the  Greek  people.  Whether  it  was 
because  the  stock  to  which  he  belonged  had  no  educa- 
tion in  the  science  of  beauty  (the  Jews  were  not  a 
building  people,  nor  a  painting  people,  nor,  in  general, 
a  structural  people),  or  whether  it  was  because  all  their 
sense  of  beauty  was  drawn  up  into  their  moral  nature, 
so  that  what  was  beauty  to  them  was  beauty  of  char- 
acter, as  it  is  called,  or  beauty  of  holiness,  as  it  is 
expressed  in  the  Scriptures,  cannot  be  precisely  said, 
although  the  latter  is  the  view  I  rather  incline  to ;  but, 
with  the  exception  of  some  general  allusions,  there  is 
very  little  evidence  that  the  Apostle  took  much  from 
the  Greeks.  He  spoke  of  their  games,  of  their  races, 
of  their  strifes,  and  so  on ;  but  there  is  one  figure  that 


278  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

he  employs  which  I  sliall  use  by  way  of  introducing 
this  lecture,  and  which  is  found  in  the  third  chapter 
of  his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthian  church.  He  speaks 
of  the  disciples  as  being  God's  building ;  and  he  speaks 
of  himself  as  being  the  architect  who  had  helped  build 
it,  —  as  the  master-builder;  he  declares  that  he  had 
sketclied  out  the  foundation-plan,  and  that  whoever 
came  after  him  must  build  according  to  that  plan, 
which  consisted  in  delineating  the  qualities  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  that  foundation-plan  or 
ground-sketch  on  which  men  w^ere  to  build.  And  what 
were  they  to  build  ?  A  church  ?  No,  each  individual 
man  was  to  build  a  character. 

Paul,  then,  had  a  definite  conception,  himself,  of 
what  he  was  about ;  and  he  left  also  to  those  who 
should  come  after  him,  under  his  influence,  this  sug- 
gestion :  that  they  were  not  to  work  at  haphazard. 
Their  business  was  to  create  new  men  on  this  founda- 
tion or  ground-plan  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  he  had 
sketched  out.     He  had  an  aim. 

Every  man  that  goes  into  the  ministry  should  have 
an  aim,  understanding  with  himself  definitely  and  ac- 
curately, as  far  as  may  be,  what  he  shall  drive  at.  It 
is  not  simply  that  you  shall  perform  your  routine 
duties  abstractly  or  ecclesiastically :  you  will  do  that 
of  course,  but  it  is  only  a  means  to  an  end ;  or,  if  it  be 
not,  it  is  machinery,  and  unworthy  of  your  manhood. 
It  is  not  enough  that  you  should  get  together  large  con- 
gregations in  destitute  places,  or  that  in  places  where 
congregations  are  organized  you  should  perform  the 
regular  parochial  duties;  for  these  things,  too,  are 
merely    instrumental.      They   are    measures    adopted 


CHRISTIAN   MANHOOD.  279 

with  reference  to  results.     There  must  be  somethiug 
a  great  deal  deeper. 

THE   PERFECTION   OF   HUMAN   CHARACTER. 

On  what  plan,  then,  must  a  man   proceed  in  his 
ministry  ? 

This  brings  me  back  to  the  last  topic  which  we  had 
under  consideration,  and  which  I  had  not  time  to  dis- 
cuss except  in  a  very  brief  and  superficial  manner.     In 
my  last  talk  with  you,  I  was  on  the  question  of  Sanc- 
tification,  or  the  final  form  of  the  Christian  character 
which  it  is  your  object  to  produce,  and  toward  which 
all  your  ministry  must  lead  up.     Let  me  say  that  I 
look  upon  this  subject  as  transcending  in  importance 
any  other  which  I  have  brought  before  you.      It  is 
that  which  God  meant  when  he  revealed  himself  in 
Christ  Jesus.     It  is  that  which  he  has  meant  in  the 
long  course  of  that  pro^ddence  by  which  he  has  sought 
to  shape  this  inchoate  race  Jnto  symmetry  and  beauty 
and  divinity.     It  is,  therefore,  the  object  of  the  Divine 
scheme ;  and  you,  as  workers  together  with  God,  will 
find  the  supreme  end  of  your  ministry  in  this :  the 
perfection  of  human  character  according  to  the  design 
of  God,  and  according  to  the  pattern  of  that  design 
whicli  is  manifested  to  us  in  the  life  and  character  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.      I  regard  this  subject  as  aU- 
important,  not  simply  on  account  of  the  life  of  the  in- 
dividual who  is  concerned  in  it,  —  though  that  is  im- 
measurably important,  —  but  because  I  feel  that  religion 
in  our  age  is  in  danger,  on  the  one  hand,  of  becoming 
a   mere  enthusiasm,  —  haply  a   superstition;  and,  on  ■ 
the  other  hand,  of  becoming  a  cold  and  polite  natural- 


280  LECTUKES  ON  PKEACHING. 

ism ;  aud  because,  escaping  either  of  these,  it  threatens 
to  be  theoretic,  technic,  ecclesiastic,  pedantic,  —  in 
short,  Pharisaic. 

So,  then,  there  is,  and  there  must  be,  a  conception  of 
Christian  character  which  shall  go  deeper ;  and  with 
that  Christian  character  before  us,  it  seems  to  me  we 
shall  not  only  renew  the  power  of  the  ministry,  but 
meet  all  those  tendencies  which  exist  and  are  gath- 
ering their  forces  to  produce  uiiveligion,  if  not  irre- 
ligion. 

You  must  needs  make  the  Christian  man  something 
more  real  and  noble  than  the  outside  world  have  been 
accustomed  to  regard  him,  and  with  the  jDower  of  love, 
with  the  force  that  lies  in  being,  with  the  irresistible- 
ness  that  exists  in  moral  qualities,  I  would  gain  victo- 
ries, and  reassert  the  place  of  the  church  and  foremost 
the  office  of  the  Christian  ministry. 

THE  TRUE  NATURE  OF  MAN. 

For  just  now  we  are  shaking  in  the  wind ;  and  the 
official  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  is  not,  on  the  whole, 
to-day  regarded  by  thinking  men  in  England  as  so  noble 
a  type  of  manhood  as  Mr.  Tyndall  or  Herbert  Spencer. 
There  is  a  popular  feeling  setting  in,  more  and  more, 
that  we  are  to  look  for  our  best  types  of  character,  not 
in  the  church  and  her  offices,  but  in  the  schools  of 
science  and  of  philosophy  ;  and  though  this  may  not  be 
a  new  thing,  it  is  a  thing  whose  force  is  more  visible 
to-day,  and  whose  influence  shadows  us  more,  than  at 
any  other  period  of  our  lives.  Men  are  going  back 
from  religion,  as  something  artificial,  to  nature,  as  a 
truer  and  a  safer  ground. 


CHRISTL^N    MANHOOD.  281 

Now,  what  is  Nature  ?  We  use  this  word  carelessly, 
as  signifying  the  great  material  world  outside  of  our- 
selves. "When  it  is  applied  to  man  we  often  signify  by 
it  simply  his  primitive  condition.  When  used  in  re- 
gard to  the  individual,  it  signifies  that  which  he  is 
at  his  bi^-th,  —  his  untaught,  untrained  self,  —  his  pri- 
mary status  in  this  world  before  he  has  developed 
anything. 

Now,  I  protest  against  this  use  jof  the  word  nature. 
Man  is  not  by  nature  what  he  is  when  he  begins.  In 
the  whole  realm  of  the  world  outside,  that  lives  in  the 
vegetable  kingdom  and  in  the  animal  kingdom,  we  do 
not  reason  so.  We  do  not  consider  that  to  be  the  na- 
ture of  a  plant  which  you  find  when  it  sprouts.  We 
wait  until  every  seed  has  brought  forth  the  fullness  of 
what  is  in  it,  and  that  we  call  its  "  nature."  We  look 
not  in  the  acorn  to  know  the  nature  of  the  oak,  but  in 
the  tree  a  hundred  years  grown.  We  look  not  in  the 
wild  rice  of  the  wilderness  to  see  what  the  nature  of 
the  grain  is,  but  in  rice  that  has  been  cultivated  and 
perfected.  Tor  the  nature  of  cereals  we  look  not  at 
them,  small  and  shriveled  where  no  hand  hath  reared 
them ;  but  we  look  at  them  where  by  the  skill  of  man 
they  have  been  enabled  to  develop  themselves  to  the 
uttermost  bounds  and  limits.  We  do  not  look  at  the 
lion's  whelp,  blind  and  sucking  its  dam,  and  call  that 
a  lion.  We  wait  until  it  is  clothed  with  power,  —  then 
we  see  the  lion  and  the  lion's  nature.  We  do  not  look 
at  the  poor  unfledged  and  callow  eaglet,  opening  its 
mouth  and  receiving  food  from  the  parent  bird,  and 
call  that  an  eagle.  It  is  only  when  he  lifts  himself  up 
Avith  power  of  wing  and  reach  of  vision  that  we  call 


282  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

him  the  king  of  birds.  His  nature  is  not  at  its  puling 
beginnings,  but  the  other  end. 

And  why  should  we  take  the  human  race  at  their 
seed-end,  and  call  that  a  man's  nature  which  he  is  at 
the  outset,  when  he  is  raw  and  undeveloped,  instead  of 
calling  that  his  nature  which  he  is  when  he  is*  ripened 
and  unfolded,  and  which  the  mind  of  God  had  in  view 
when  he  created  him  ? 

So,  then,  man's  nature  does  not  lie  where  he  began, 
but  the  other  way.  It  is  that  which  he  may  become. 
Man's  true  nature  is  that  which  he  is  when,  under  right 
conditions,  under  proper  culture,  and  under  the  stimu- 
lating influence  of  the  Divine  Soul,  he  has  been  carried 
on  in  development,  in  harmonization,  to  perfectness. 
What  a  man  reaches  when  he  is  harmonized  with  him- 
self and  with  God,  —  that  is  his  nature. 

OBJECT   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

I  have  made  these  remarks  in  order  to  say  that  re- 
ligion is  natural  to  man,  not  artificial;  and  that  our 
business  is  to  bring  men  up  to  their  nature.  To  every 
scientist,  to  every  philosopher,  to  every  cold,  reasoning 
man  who  looks  at  the  instruments  of  the  church,  at  its 
economy,  at  its  external  clothing,  as  it  were,  and  calls 
these  religion,  I  say  that  what  /  mean  by  religion  is 
that  which  a  man  is  brought  to  by  Divine  guidance,  when 
everything  in  him  is  in  its  normal  condition  and  ulti- 
mate strength.  And  it  is  to  this  that  you  are  to  bring 
men.  Bringing  them  to  this  is  the  real  object  of  our 
ministry.  We  are  not  to  start  them,  to  disquiet  them, 
to  get  them  into  the  church,  and  then  to  neglect  them. 
We  are  not  simply  to  make  them  happy,  or  to  make 


CHEISTIAN   MANHOOD.  283 

them  do  some  good :  we  are  to  labor  to  bring  them 
to  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  manhood  in  Christ 
Jesus.  That  is  the  supreme  end  of  the  Christian  min- 
istry. 

HUMAN  NEED    OF   EDUCATION. 

When  animals  are  born,  there  are  but  three  letters 
to  the  alphabet  of  their  faculties,  as  it  were,  —  A,  B,  C; 
but  when  men  are  born  there  are  twenty -six  or  more 
letters  to  the  alphabet  of  their  faculties.  Take  a  lion, 
for  instance.  There  can  be  only  six  permutations  of 
his  three  letters  ;  and  the  lion  soon  goes  through  them 
all,  and  grows  up  to  his  full  self,  —  and  he  does  it  with- 
out a  schoolmaster.  But  no  man  grows  up  to  his  full 
self  without  a  schoolmaster.  The  ages  have  to  wait  for 
men.  The  beginnings  of  the  human  race  are  unsuscep- 
tible to  the  full  development  of  human  character. 
Tliat  is  a  thing  so  large  and  so  glorious  that  it  takes 
not  simply  the  limit  of  one  man's  life,  but  ages  of  na- 
tions to  develop  it ;  and  it  goes  on  becoming  larger  and 
larger  in  every  generation.  The  world  will  come  to  its 
full  power  and  supreme  glory  only  when  the  ultimate 
conditions  of  human  character  are  reached,  which  are  so 
complex  because  man  is  so  rich  in  his  endowments  ; 
because  there  are  so  many  organ-stops  in  him  ;  because 
there  are  so  many  alphabetic  initials,  making  as  many 
variations  in  his  experience  as  the  letters  of  our  lan- 
guage make  words  in  literature.  It  is  a  large  and  a 
long  work,  to  bring  to  perfection  that  which  God  meant 
in  man,  and  which  ought  to  be  expressed  by  the  word 
nature.  When  a  man  is  developed  up  to  his  true  na- 
ture, the  reason,  every  part  of  it,  must  be  brought  to 


284  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

its  full ;  the  moral  sentiments,  each  one  of  them,  must 
be  brought  to  their  fuU ;  the  social  faculties  must  be 
brought  to  their  full ;  every  part  of  the  mind  must  be 
brought  to  its  full :  and  each  must  learn  its'  role.  Con- 
sider how  many  faculties  there  are  which  go  to  con- 
stitute the  reason ;  and  consider  that  each  one  not 
only  has  to  learn  its  own  trade,  but  has  to  keep  good 
neighborhood  with  corresponding  faculties.  Consider 
how  many  sentiments  there  are  in  a  man's  moral  na- 
ture ;  and  consider  that  each  one  of  these  not  only  has 
to  learn  to  perform  the  functions  of  its  own  sphere 
with  full  power,  but  that  it  also  has  to  co-operate  with 
the  others.  Consider  that  every  part  is  to  grow  strong, 
and  is  also  to  grow  concordantly  with  the  rest. 

There  is  this  necessity  of  education,  or  development 
by  training,  in  each  man's  natural  state,  —  not  the  state 
in  which  he  is  born,  but  that  state  for  which  he  was 
born,  and  towards  which  he  is  to  come  by  the  gradual 
birth  ,of  fourscore  years  or  more  ;  and  your  business,  as 
an  educator,  is  to  bring  him  to  that. 

LOVE,  THE  ONLY  PRACTICAL  SOUL-CENTER. 

This  view  gives  an  immense  leverage.  I  speak  not 
altogether  without  experience.  I  have  a  congregation 
which  is  filled  with  young  scientists.  I  know  their 
doubts.  I  am  acquainted  with  their  difficulties.  I 
have  for  years  been  seeking  to  find  out  the  way  of  pre- 
senting to  them  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ.  I  have 
been  endeavoring  to  preach  the  gospel  to  men  who 
have  been  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  modern  schools, 
in  such  a  way  that  it  should  meet  their  moral  convic- 
tions.    I  have  studied  to  impress  men  with  the  feeling 


CHRISTIAN   MANHOOD.  285 

that  religion  means  that  final  form  of  development 
which  consists  in  the  perfect  harmonization  and 
strengthening  of  their  powers  around  about  a  common 
center  of  the  soul,  under  the  Divine  inspiration.  I 
have  sought  to  lead  them  to  recognize  that  religion 
presents  a  philosophical  conception  which  is  not  in  dis- 
agreement with  the  tendencies  of  the  present  day, — 
which  harmonizes  with  them.  It  has  been  my  endeav- 
or thus,  to  gain  the  ear  of  men  who  were  likely  to  be 
alienated  from  mere  sectarian  views  which  embrace 
philosophical  formulas  that  are  antiquated  or  run 
out. 

This  harmonization  of  all  the  faculties  of  the  soul 
can  only  take  place  around  the  true  center.  There  is 
but  one  center  about  which  you  can  harmonize  a 
man's  faculties  so  that  the  reason  will  submit  to  its 
mastership ;  so  that  the  moral  sentiments  will  do 
obeisance  to  it ;  so  that  the  social  elements  will  admit 
that  it  is  sovereign  ;  so  that  all  the  appetites  and  pas- 
sions will  yield  allegiance  to  it ;  so  that  every  bodily 
force  will  willingly  submit  to  its  control :  and  that  cen- 
ter is  Love. 

OTHER   FACULTIES  TESTED. 

For  instance,  take  Eeason  as  a  center  and  attempt  to 
harmonize  the  whole  character  about  that.  In  the  first 
place,  the  reason  of  man  is  but,  comparatively  speaking, 
a  guide.  Make  it  free  as  you  please,  and  let  it  be 
fruitful  as  may  be,  searching  every  whither ;  but  alone 
it  can  never  become  a  center  around  which  the  powers 
of  a  man  will  all  move  obediently  and  harmoniously. 
And  that  experience  has  shown,  thousands  and  tens  of 


286  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

thousands  of  times.  More  than  that,  reason  can  never 
interpret  to  a  man  that  which  is  his  truest  manhood. 
Eeason  is  itself  the  instrument  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
mind  ;  and  the  man  lies  under  it,  behind  it,  and  around 
it.  Just  as  the  ocean  lies  underneath  the  ship,  so  the 
great  motive-power  of  man,  his  heart  and  soul,  lies  un- 
derneath the  reason.  Eeason  never  can  express  a  feel- 
ing. It  expresses  ideas  and  their  relationships  ;  but 
the  interpretation  of  emotion  by  ideas,  the  intellectual 
conception  of  a  feeling,  is  simply  impossible.  Still  less 
can  the  force  of  feeling  be  controlled  by  ideas.  If  a 
man  undertakes  to  make  himself  a  Christian  by  stand- 
ing on  a  center  of  reasonableness,  and  doing  whatever 
he  sees  to  be  right,  he  must  ask  leave  of  his  temper. 
There  are  thousands  of  men  who  know  that  it  is  rea- 
sonable not  to  be  excited ;  but  if,  as  they  step  out  of 
doors,  they  meet  a  man  who  owes  them  money,  and  who 
says  to  them,  "  Get  it  if  you  can ;  you  can't  collect  a 
cent,"  how  they  fly  off  from  the  beautiful  center  of 
reason  ! 

It  has  no  control  over  passion  and  appetite.  You 
may  throw  as  many  icicles  into  the  fire  as  you  please, 
but  icicles  won't  put  out  fire.  Ice  must  be  liquefied 
before  it  can  be  of  any  use  for  such  a  purpose.  And 
so  reason  is  incapable  of  extinguishing  the  elements 
of  evil  which  exist  in  men.  It  may  set  about  con- 
trolling the  other  faculties  of  the  mind ;  but  the  mo- 
ment its  attention  is  withdrawn  from  them  they  are 
like  school-boys  that  laugh  and  play  when  the  master 
is  out ;  and  when  it  comes  back  it  is  quite  surprised  at 
the  disorder  which  prevails  in  the  school  of  the  soul. 
They  won't  mind  it. 


CHRISTIAN  MANHOOD.  287 

A  man  loves  money  better  than  anything  else  in  the 
world ;  he  sees  how  his  life  is  deranged  by  his  avarice, 
and  he  tries  to  persuade  himself  that  it  is  right  to  de- 
vote himself  to  its  accumulation.  He  says,  "  I  take  a 
great  deal  of  enjoyment  in  collecting  my  rents,  and, 
right  or  wrong,  I  am  going  to  have  money."  The  rea- 
son protests  against  this ;  but  avarice  laughs  and  has 
its  own  way,  in  spite  of  reason. 

A  man  is  told  how  foolish  pride  is ;  how  much  mis- 
ery it  brings  him ;  how  much  unhappiness  it  causes 
other  men ;  what  a  stirrer  up  of  trouble,  and  what  a 
producer  of  pain,  it  is.  The  reason  is  convinced,  and 
says  to  pride,  "  You  must  humble  yourself,  Mischief- 
maker  Pride  "  ;  but  a  sparrow  might  as  well  say  to 
Mont  Blanc,  "  Come  down  and  play  with  me  in  the 
valley."  It  will  not  come  down ;  and  no  more  will 
pride  humble  itself  in  obedience  to  the  command  of 
reason. 

Take  another  element  around  about  which  character 
is  formed  as  a  controlling  power.  Next  to  reason,  men 
center  their  life  on  the  Will.  Gentlemen,  do  you  know 
what  the  will  is  ?  I  know  what  it  is  in  its  concrete 
form ;  but  in  its  philosophy,  in  its  faculty,  what  is  it  ? 
You  cannot  give  a  definition  of  it.  We  all  think  that 
it  is  a  directive  force,  and  that  is  all.  It  does  not  een- 
erate  feeling  nor  thought,  it  simply  gives  direction  to 
something  wliich  existed  Ijeforehand.  It  cannot,  there- 
fore, be  a  center.  It  controls  ;  but  it  only  controls  ele- 
ments which  have  been  developed  for  it  to  control. 
Any  amount  of  effort  has  been  put  forth  to  make  it  a 
center ;  but  see  with  what  result.  For  instance,  Pro- 
fessor Finney  has  made  the  will  the  grand  center-point 


288  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

of  departure  from  selfish  life  to  holy  life.  A  man  re- 
solves, "  By  the  grace  of  God,  from  this  hour  I  will  at- 
tempt to  live  as  a  Christian,  and  all  my  life  shall  flow 
in  that  direction."  That  is  right,  instrumentally ;  but 
men  of  strong  understanding  go  on  all  their  life  long 
vainly  attempting  to  build  up  Christian  character  on 
that  doctrine.  There  is  a  latent  doctrine,  or  an  overt 
one,  more  or  less  concerned  in  it ;  but  their  character 
is  formed  on  the  will-power,  as  it  is  called  ;  or  it  is  the 
result  of  a  series  of  determinations.  And  what  do  you 
make  of  them  ?  Keen,  active,  executive,  external  men ; 
but  seldom  men  sweet,  kindly,  or  full-souled.  The 
crystallizing  force  is  in  the  wrong  place  in  such  na- 
tures. 

Another  class  of  men  attempt  to  subdue  the  whole 
nature  around  about  Veneration  as  a  central  point ;  the 
sense  of  the  magnitude,  of  the  sublimity,  of  the  author- 
ity, and  of  the  grandeur  of  God.  To  veneration  men 
are  taught  to  attempt  to  submit  everytlang  which  they 
have  in  them.  You  cannot  make  a  rich  nature  in  that 
way.  It  is  not  simply  having  a  sense  of  nobility,  and 
certainly  it  is  not  having  an  awful  fear  of  what  is  no- 
ble, that  is  going  to  make  one's  nature  rich. 

There  are  two  elements  in  religion.  One  is  the  re- 
strictive element ;  and  that  is  to  he  strong  in  propor- 
tion as  men  are  nearly  allied  to  their  animal  conditions. 
Not  to  do  wrong  is  the  lowest  element  of  piety ;  but 
thousands  of  persons  never  reach  any  higher  than  that. 
Not  to  do  wrong  is  their  charter ;  and  A^eneration, 
though  it  adds  color  to  a  character  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances, is,  as  a  controlling  center,  substantially 
negative.     It  holds  men  back,  restrains  them,  outwardly, 


CHEISTIAN   MANHOOD.  289 

from  disobedience  or  neglect ;  but  restraining  evil  is 
the  lowest  form  and  type  of  influence.  It  is  essen- 
tially allied  to  the  animal  condition. 

The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  not  negative,  but  positive. 
It  is  zeal  in  love ;  it  is  humility  ;  it  is  mind-influence ; 
it  is  disinterestedness  ;  it  is  activity  in  doing  good.  As 
you  rise  from  the  animal  toward  the  higher  forms  of 
men,  the  natures  that  are  developed  must  be  positive, 
and  not  negative.  A  man  may  have  a  garden  with  not 
a  single  bit  of  purslane  in  it  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
with  not  a  single  Canada  thistle  in  it,  with  not  a  pig- 
weed in  it,  with  not  a  particle  of  dock  in  it,  with  not 
one  single  weed  in  it ;  a  man  may  have  a  garden  with- 
out one  bad  thing  in  it,  —  and  without  a  good  thing  in 
it  either,  not  a  flower  nor  a  fruit. 

Now,  to  get  your  weeds  out  of  the  way  is  all  right; 
but  the  weeds  are  to  be  got  out  in  order  that  the 
ground  may  be  occupied  by  positive  blossoms  and  fruit. 
Not  doing  wrong  is  right ;  but  it  is  a  lower  right.  It 
is  simply  keeping  under  the  weeds,  as  it  were,  of  the 
disposition,  while  the  real  thing  which  a  man  should 
seek  to  do  should  be  to  produce  positive  virtues. 
But  veneration  does  not  produce  these  ;  and  therefore 
it  is  not,  when  the  soul  moves  in  complex  ways,  fitted 
to  be  the  master.  It  cannot  drive  the  soul  when  its 
different  faculties  are  all  abroad,  and  are  variously  en- 
gaged.    It  takes  another  charioteer. 

So  neither  can  you  center  the  character  around  about 
Ideality,  —  the  artist  feeling,  —  the  taste  feeling,  —  the 
sense  of  beauty  and  propriety.  At  certain  stages  of 
civilization  men  naturally  make  that  pre-eminent ;  and, 
as  I  have  said,  it  may  become  a  powerful  auxiliary  to 

VOL.    III.  13  s 


200  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

the  spiritual  emotions,  to  a  much  larger  extent  than  it 
is  ;  but  as  a  master-center,  as  a  sovereign  in  the  soul,  it 
is  feeble.  As  a  restrainer,  as  a  harmonizer,  as  a  guide 
and  governor,  it  is  power  indeed. 

And  that  which  is  true  of  beauty  is  just  as  true 
of  Conscience.  We  hear  a  great  deal  said  about  con- 
science ;  we  hear  a  great  deal  said  about  the  lack  of 
conscience ;  and  I  believe  that  the  foundations  of  char- 
acter ought  to  be  laid  on  conscience,  just  as  the  parlor 
and  the  nursery  ought  to  J  3  laid  on  oak  sills ;  but  I 
shovild  as  soon  think  of  bimging  up  my  children  on 
planics  and  timbers  in  the  parlor  and  nursery,  laying 
their  bare  limbs  down  on  these  hard  timbers  and 
planks,  as  to  attempt  to  make  a  rich,  sweet,  lovely,  and 
lustrous  character  simply  on  conscience,  which  is,  in 
its  essential  nature,  cold,  hard,  condemnatory,  and 
which  comes  into  alliance  with  the  malign  passions 
much  more  naturally  than  with  the  benign  elements. 
Its  true  chemical  affinities  are  with  the  bottom,  and 
not  often  with  the  top.  At  any  rate,  they  have,  by 
practice  and  habit,  been  made  to  ally  themselves  very 
much  with  the  lower  qualities  of  the  mind.  The  soul 
will  not  own  conscience  as  its  master. 

Neither  will  Fervr  nor  Superstition  do  to  be  made  the 
center  about  which  to  liarmonize  all  the  faculties  of  a 
man's  soul.     There  is  but  one  real  center. 

THE   PAULINE   CONCEPTION. 

"  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels 
[tliough  I  speak  Syriac,  and  Hebrew,  and  Greek,  and  Latin, 
yes,  and  the  language  of  angels,  —  I  think  I  see  that  in  the 
text],  and  have  not  love,  I  am  as  sounding  brass,  or  a  tink- 
ling cymbal." 


CHRISTIAN   MANHOOD.  291 

If  he  had  lived  in  our  day,  he  would  have  said  a 
bass-drum,  which  is  very  empty  and  very  noisy. 

"  And  though  I  have  tlie  gift  of  prophecy  [aptitude  of 
speech  as  well  as  foresight  and  disclosure],  and  understand 
all  mysteries,  and  all  knowledge,  and  though  I  have  all  faith 
so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have  not  love,  I  am 
nothing ;  and  though  I  hestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor 
[though  I  am  unboundedly  gene'-c  us,  —  generosity  being  the 
sensibility  of  kindness  when  the  object  of  suffering  is  visible 
to  our  senses ;  and  liberality  1  Ing  the  sense  of  kindness 
when  the  object  of  suffering  is  invisible ;  one  having  the  ele- 
ments of  faith  in  it,  and  the  other  one  sensuous  elements], 
and  though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned  [in  my  zeal  and 
fierce  addiction  to  my  own  views  of  the  truth],  and  have  not 
love,  I  am  nothing.  Love  sufifereth  long,  and  is  kind ;  love 
envieth  not ;  love  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up,  doth 
not  behave  itself  unseemly,  seeketh  not  her  own,  is  not  easily 
provoked,  thinketh  no  evil ;  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  re- 
joiceth  in  the  truth ;  beareth  all  tilings,  believeth  all  things, 
hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things.     Love  never  fadeth." 

"What  a  fruit-tree  it  is  that  bears  all  this  fruit ! 
What  is  the  soul,  that  it  can  bring  forth  such  things  as 
"^ve  enumerated  here  ?  We  are  coming  to  the  center 
accor^Mng  to  the  Pauline  conception,  which  has  love  in 
it  as  the  essential  element.  And  see,  when  he  comes 
to  that  how  regnant  he  makes  it !  See  how  it  has  in 
i^  the  prolificness  of  the  omniscient,  omnipresent,  om- 
nipotent God !  It  "  never  faileth."  It  has  in  it  im- 
mortality.    Everything  else  is  i-elative  to  it. 

"  But  whether  there  be  prophecies,  they  [belonging  to 
this  particular  sphere,  —  belonging  to  time  and  circumstance] 
shall  fail ;   whether  there   be  tongues,  they  shaU  cease  [all 


292  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

languages  end  with  this  world] ;  whether  there  be  knowl- 
edge, it  shall  vanish  away.  [AU  knowledge  here  is  relative, 
suggestive,  fugitive,  and  will  perish.  When  you  rise  to  see 
what  is  in  the  universal  realm,  all  that  you  see  here  will 
seem  like  fleeting  clouds  and  films.] 

"  For  we  know  in  part  [this  was  said  by  a  man  who  had  been 
in  the  seventh  heaven],  and  we  prophesy  in  part.  [Now 
Paul  never  would  do  for  a  theologian,  acknowledging,  as  he 
did,  that  he  knew  only  in  fragments.]  But  when  that  which 
is  ijerfect  is  come  [when  the  full  disclosure  of  men's  manhood 
is  m^de  ;  when  men  have  been  educated  on  the  earth,  and 
have  passed  through  the  drill  of  life,  and  have  gone  through 
the  battle,  and  won,  and  have  ripened  the  Spirit  of  God  in 
themselves,  and  have  been  lifted  up  out  of  limitations  and 
hindrances],  then  that  Avhich  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away." 

Well,  Paul,  what  then  about  that  other  state  ?  If 
all  that  is  so  glorious  and  grand  in  this  life  is  as  noth- 
ing ;  if  you  say  of  that  state,  "  Ah !  I  do  not  know  any 
more  about  that  than  I  knew  about  manhood  when  I 
was  a  child";  if  yon  say,  "When  I  was  a  child,  I 
spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I  thought  as 
a  child,  but  when  I  became  a  man  I  put  away  child- 
ish things,"  and  that  is  your  representation  of  our  pres- 
ent condition  as  compared  with  our  future  condition, 
then  what  must  that  other  state  be  ? 

Now,  we  are  children ;  and  the  inspired  Pauline  idea 
of  heaven  is,  that  our  conception  of  it  is  as  far  from 
the  glory  of  the  reality,  as  the  visions  of  a  child  are 
from  the  experience  of  his  full  manhood.  He  says, 
"  Now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly ;  but  then,  face 
to  face :  now  I  know  in  part  [I,  the  chiefest  of  the 
apostles,  know  but  in  spots  and  fragments] ;  but  then 
shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am  known." 


CHRISTIAN   MANHOOD.  293 

Veiy  well,  then,  what  part  of  us  will  remain  ?  If  you 
say  that  the  understanding,  the  imagination,  and  all 
the  thousand  susceptibilities  and  sympathies  of  the 
sold  are  of  the  earth,  earthy,  shall  we  have  our  iden- 
tity in  the  other  sphere  ?  Shall  we  know  ourselves 
and  other  men?  Yes;  for  there  are  certain  qualities 
that  constitute  the  great  conditions  of  our  personality 
which  never  perish,  which  do  not  change,  wliich  abide 
forever. 

"  Xow  abidetli  faith,  hope,  love." 

Faith  is  that  quality  of  a  man's  nature  by  which  he 
comes  into  the  realm  of  the  invisible.  Hope  is  that 
power  by  which  his  life  goes  forward  beyond  the  pres- 
ent sphere,  and  is  ever  multiplying  itself.  And  Love 
is  greater  than  either  of  these. 

WHY   PAUL   WAS   RIGHT. 

Now,  look  at  such  an  interpretation,  at  such  a  char- 
ter of  Christian  character  as  that,  and  tell  me  if  I  am 
not  warranted  in  saying  that  the  only  faculty  of  the 
soul  which  can  be  made  the  center  of  a  man's  charac- 
ter, and  about  which  you  can  rank  and  harmonize  all 
his  other  faculties,  is  the  faculty  of  love.  Look  at  it. 
Wliat  part  of  a  man  is  it  that  refuses  to  submit  to 
love  where  it  exists  ? 

The  reason  not  only  submits  to  it,  but  takes  wider 
flights  and  clearer  sights  when  it  is  in  subordination 
to  love.  In  many  relations  the  reason  cannot  act  ex- 
cept under  the  influence  of  the  spirit  of  love. 

Let  reason  undertake  to  judge  hatred,  and  how  im- 
perfect is  its  judgment!  Let  reason  attempt  to  adju- 
dicate in  the  matter  of  pride,  and  how  blinded  is  its 


294  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

vision,  how  awry  are  its  conclusions,  how  warped  and 
partisan  are  its  methods  and  influences  ! 

Now,  bring  love  into  the  soul,  with  its  quietude, 
with  its  sweetness,  with  its  harmonizing  nature,  and 
how  does  reason,  like  one  coming  out  of  a  dream  or  a 
fit  of  insanity,  see  things  as  they  are ;  and  how  does  it 
move  majestically  as  if  it  were  a  very  creature  of  God  ! 

Bring  in  veneration  as  a  center,  and  how  many  pow- 
ers of  the  soul  are  in  insurrection !  Then  bring  in 
love,  and  how  everything  in  the  soul  is  regulated  and 
brought  into  a  state  of  willing  allegiance  ! 

There  is  nothing  in  the  constitution  of  man  to  which 
selfishness  yields  as  it  does  to  love.  I  do  not  know  of 
anytliing  that  is  more  prettily  selfish  than  a  petted  girl. 
She  is  the  delight  of  father  and  mother.  She  is 
beautiful.  She  is  accomplished.  She  is  universally 
attractive.  She  is  beloved  by  all  who  know  her ;  and 
in  a  thousand  little  pretty  ways  she  manifests  her 
selfishness ;  and  everybody  tolerates  it ;  and  all  the 
neighbors  say,  "  She  is  utterly  spoiled."  But  erelong, 
in  the  hour  of  disclosure,  she  finds  her  mate ;  she  loves, 
and  at  once  all  her  faults  and  failings  begin,  one  after 
another,  to  dissolve,  and  go  away,  like  snow  in  March. 
And,  by  and  by,  love  watches  the  cradle.  And  this 
creature,  that  father  had  to  serve,  and  mother  had  to 
serve,  and  the  servants  had  to  serve,  and  everybody 
had  to  serve,  and  toward  whom  ran  in  every  stream 
of  delight,  being  now  a  mother,  cares  nothing  for  par- 
ties and  visits,  —  cares  only  to  serve  that  little  unre- 
quiting  child.  And  all  night  she  will  give  up  her 
sleep  that  she  may  watch  over  it  if  it  be  sick,  and  all 
day  she  will  devote  herself  to  it.     And  she  is  joyous 


CHRISTLiN   MANHOOD.  295 

as  a  bird  as  she  sits  and  sings  to  lier  darling  in  the 
cradle.  And  that  which  wrought  so  marvelous  a  change 
in  her  was  love. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  but  the  elemental  power  of 
love  that  can  subdue  all  the  other  human  faculties  and 
make  them  revolve  about  it.  And  is  not  that  the  qual- 
ity, in  Jesus  Christ,  that  Paul  thought  of  when  he  said 
that  there  was  no  other  controlling  power,  no  other 
master-builder,  no  other  architect,  no  other  ground- 
plan,  of  the  soul,  like  that  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus, 
who  came  to  show  how  he  had  loved  the  world  ?  The 
charter  of  his  coming  was  this :  God  so  loved  the  ivorld 
that  he  gave  his  Son  to  suffer  and  die  for  it.  Love,  that 
suffers ;  that  bears  all  things ;  that  strengthens  weak- 
ness ;  that  enlightens  darkness ;  that  restrains  impet- 
uosity ;  that  humbles  pride ;  that  sweetens  bitterness, 
yea,  and  acerbity ;  that  takes  from  men  all  things  rude, 
and  gives  them  all  things  refined ;  that  God  sent  into 
the  world  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  walking  in 
beauty  and  authority  and  power,  —  Love  said  to  all 
mankind,  "Lay  aside  ceremonial  sacrifices,  and  ordi- 
nances, and  rules,  and  regulations,  and  conform  your 
lives  to  this  living  pattern.  Here  is  godhood,  and 
therefore  here  is  manhood.  They  are  one  and  the 
same.  So,  build  accordingly."  And  then  what  ?  Be- 
cause you  are  of  God,  and  because  like  attracts  like, 
you  will  come  irresistibly  into  the  Divine  communion 
and  into  the  Divine  presence. 

THE   SUN   OF   RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

ISTow,  in  your  ministration  you  are  men-builders,  not 
in  a  general  sense  alone,  but  in  the  sense  of  the  eternal 


296  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

structure  of  cliaracter.  And  here  I  want  to  say  that 
if  any  man  thinks  this  kind  of  character  can  be  built 
without  Divine  influence,  I  pity  his  ignorance.  There 
are  a  great  many  men  who  say  that  they  have  all  the 
power  they  want,  and  that  they  do  not  depend  on  God; 
but  they  are  men  who  have  not  an  idea  of  inward 
character,  and  of  the  necessity  of  reconstruction.  I 
know  what  is  in  man ;  I  have  seen  it,  I  have  felt  it, 
I  have  wrestled  with  it ;  and  if  one  thing  lies  deeper 
in  my  thought  and  conviction  than  any  other,  it  is 
this :  that  without  the  direct  influx,  the  immediate  and 
efficacious  agency,  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  it  is  in  vain  to 
attempt  to  reconstruct  the  character  of  a  man,  and 
bring  out  in  him  that  manhood  which  is  the  true 
nature  of  mankind.  You  say,  "  No,  the  family  helps, 
and  the  laws  help " ;  but  do  you  not  know  that  the 
well-ordered  family  is  the  reflex  influence  of  the  Divine 
mind,  and  that  just  and  wise  laws  in  society  have 
stored  up  in  them  the  influence  that  has  come  from 
the  down-shining  of  God  upon  men  from  generation  to 
generation  ? 

There  is  nothing  more  beautiful  in  Tyndall's  writ- 
ings than  where  he  shows  that  all  forces  that  are 
working  in  the  world  are  solar  forces.  According  to 
his  theory,  it  is  the  sun  that  has  given  life  to  the  vast 
trees  and  plants  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Wlien,  by 
heat  from  wood  or  coal,  water  is  converted  into  steam, 
the  force  is  a  development  of  that  which  was  stored 
up  in  the  fuel,  and  which  has  come  to  itself  in  another 
form ;  and  thus  it  is  still  the  sun  that  does  the  work. 
So  institutions  store  up  Divine  influences  through 
years  ;  and  when  they  act  they  are  indirect  and  second- 
ary forms  of  Divine  influence. 


CHRISTIAN  MANHOOD.  297 

But  the  direct  influence  of  the  sun,  —  see  how  it 
works  everywhere !  Did  you  ever  notice  a  tree  growing 
against  a  wall  ?  How  gently  it  grows  in  the  sunlight, 
that  is  so  charming,  so  bland,  so  sweet !  The  birds,  as 
with  glittering  wings  they  fly  through  the  air,  rejoice 
in  the  sunlight.  The  maiden  walks  forth  from  her  sick- 
chamber,  and  thanks  God  for  the  sunlight.  All  the 
globe  above  our  heads  is  a  vast  goblet,  as  it  were, 
filled  with  the  wine  of  sunlight.  What  is  so  harmless 
and  sweet  and  beautiful  as  the  sunlight  ?  And  yet, 
let  the  sunlight  go  on  working  on  the  willow,  —  the 
most  accommodating  of  trees,  that  waves  whichever 
way  it  is  coaxed  to  wave,  —  and  let  the  tree  crowd 
against  almost  any  wall,  and  it  will  push  it  down, 
whether  it  be  of  brick  or  stone.  The  simple  influence 
of  the  sun  in  things  that  have  life  in  them,  —  how 
mighty  it  is  ! 

Soul-growth  comes  from  the  influence  of  the  Divine 
sun,  as  really  as  vegetable  growth  comes  from  the  influ- 
ence of  the  visible  sun.  The  growth  of  the  soul  comes 
by  the  shining  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  in  whose 
beams  there  is  life  and  health  and  power  to  every  soul 
that  accepts  it. 

Here,  then,  we  come  to  a  ground  which  it  seems  to 
me  is  common,  or  may  be  common,  both  to  those  who 
are  engaged  in  church  work  and  those  who  are  engaged 
in  scientific  work. 

There  is  no  doctrine  in  which  men  believe  more  at 
this  day  than  in  evolution,  —  development,  going  on 
and  up,  greater  and  greater  unfolding.  And  men  talk 
of  fToinij  from  nature  toward  civilization.  But  I  sav 
that  civilization  is  natvn-e,  —  the  highest  nature.     I  say 

13* 


298  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

that  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  seeking  the  same  thing 
which,  however  dimly  and  however  blindly,  science  is 
making  its  way  toward,  —  the  disclosure  of  the  power 
of  God  by  which  men  grow  ;  and  it  is  coming  to  be 
understood  that  they  grow  by  the  very  forces  which 
are  in  them,  harmonized  around  that  soul-center  love, 
which,  when  man  is  in  his  normal  condition,  controls 
everything  that  is  in  him. 

THE   PERFECT   MAN. 

This,  then,  is  my  estimate  of  sanctification.  It  is 
that  state  into  which  men  come  when  every  part  of 
their  nature  has  been  developed,  and  when  the  facul- 
ties have  been  subordinated  in  their  real  gradations. 
When  the  faculties  have  all  come  to  have  affinities 
with  the  central  controlling  elements  of  Divine  and 
human  love  in  the  soul ;  when  that  love  is  the  center 
from  which  power  goes  out  and  stimulates  every  fac- 
ulty, —  then  men  are  perfect. 

When  I  look  at  "  perfect  "  folks,  my  first  thought  is, 
always,  "  Are  they  more  loving  and  more  lovely  than 
other  folks  ? "  I  have  seen  many  perfect  people,  or 
people  that  called  themselves  perfect,  and  have  often 
wished  that  I  felt  as  happy  about  being  perfect  as  they 
did ;  but  when  I  apply  my  test  I  cannot  find  perfect 
folks.  There  are  those  who  think  they  are  perfect  be- 
cause they  do  not  commit  faults,  —  that  is,  because 
they  do  not  spill  over.  One  reason  why  they  do  not 
spill  over  is  because  there  is  so  little  in  them.  Some 
people  do  not  commit  many  faults,  because  there  is  not 
much  to  them.  They  consider  themselves  perfect,  be- 
cause they  think  their  will   is  continually  coincident 


CHKISTIAN   MANHOOD.  299 

with  the  Divine  will.  They  walk  in  that  pleasant  illu- 
sion. It  is  a  dream.  I  have  had  such  dreams, — 
though  not  when  I  was  awake.  I  have  had  splendid 
times  when  I  was  asleep,  and  have  waked  up  to  find 
I  had  been  dreaming,  There  are  men  who  think  their 
will  is  in  accord  with  God's  will,  and  who  say,  "  Thy 
will  be  done,"  all  the  time,  whispering  it  to  themselves 
as  they  go  around.  They  have  had  a  comparatively 
quiet  and  pleasant  life,  and  they  think  that  they  agree 
with  God.  I  do,  too,  when  he  agrees  with  me.  When 
things  are  about  as  I  want  them,  I  am  always  content 
that  the  will  of  God  should  be  done  ;  but  when  they 
are  ordered  the  other  way,  then  how  is  it  ? 

Now,  there  are  very  few  persons  who  have  attained 
perfection,  although  there  are  many  who  suppose 
themselves  to  be  perfect.  Some  persons  are  perfect  in 
the  same  way  that  a  man  is  obedient  to  his  master  wlio 
is  prevented  from  running  away  from  slavery  by  the 
cutting  off  of  his  legs.  He  will  not  run  away,  to  be 
sure  :  but  he  is  rendered  less  a  man  by  the  loss  of  his 
legs.  A  man  may  be  prevented  from  stealing  by  cut- 
ting his  hands  off;  but  he  is  not  so  much  a  man  after 
his  hands  are  cut  off  as  he  was  before.  And  this  ascetic 
method  of  attempting  to  make  men  perfect  by  tlie  mu- 
tilation of  their  faculties,  is  one  which  takes  away  much 
of  their  manhood. 

My  conception  of  a  perfect  man  is  one  who  is  strong  ; 
who  is  full  of  energy;  full  of  appetites  and  passions, 
and,  therefore,  of  that  wonderful  force  which  is  wrought 
by  them,  or  which  transforms  itself  into  auxiliary 
forces  ;  full  of  life ;  full  of  thought-power  ;  full  of 
aesthetic  excellences ;  and,  above  all,  full  of  that  cen- 


300  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

tral  element  of  love  to  which  all  other  influences  are 
subordinated,  and  which  is  itself  subordinate  to  God. 

Now,  give  me  a  man  like  this.  Where  do  you  find 
him,  —  the  man  of  liberty ;  the  man  of  infinite  large- 
ness ;  the  man  that  goes  freely  whither  he  will,  up  and 
down,  all  the  faculties  playing  in  harmony  with  the 
concert-pitch  of  the  universe,  which  is  love  ?  Show 
me  that  perfect  man.  I  have  never  seen  him.  I  do  not 
expect  to  see  him  on  earth.  It  is  my  business  to  lead 
people  toward  that  ideal ;  but  it  will  remain  an  ideal  in 
my  day.  None  the  less  should  we  seek  it,  however. 
None  the  less  should  our  ministry  point  to  it.  We  are 
to  preach  to  our  people  sanctification,  —  the  arranging 
and  harmonizing  of  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind  around 
about  love,  the  sacred  principle  of  the  Divine  nature ; 
the  all-governing  principle  of  heaven ;  the  principle 
that  yet  is  to  transmute  men  from  the  animal  condi- 
tion to  the  angelic,  and  make  them  fit  companions  of 
God. 

THE  preacher's  MISSION. 

If  this  be  the  nature  of  your  ministry,  young  gentle- 
men, you  must  be  industrious.  It  will  not  do  for  you 
to  spend  your  time  with  books  alone.  You  must  know 
men,  in  this  day.  It  is  not  a  small  thing  to  be  a 
minister  of  Christ.  To  be  a  mere  priest  is  a  very  little 
thing.  In  the  priestly  office  there  is  an  appointed 
round  of  duties  which  can  be  easily  performed.  But 
to  be  a  servant  of  souls ;  to  be  Christ's  educator  of 
men's  interior  nature;  to  stand  in  the  place  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  not  in  ]iis  majesty  of  power,  but  in  his 
spirit,  and  to  attempt  to  do  in  your  sphere  what  Christ 


CHRISTIAN   MANHOOD.  301 

by  his  example  taught  you  to  do ;  to  know  men ;  to 
understand  their  weaknesses ;   to  perceive  their  sins, 
and  to  sympathize  with  them  and  sorrow  for  them  on 
account  of  their  infirmities,  and  bring  the  truth  so  to 
bear  on  them  as  to  fill  them  up,  each  in  the  particular 
spot  where  he  is  deficient,  and  give  proportion  and  har- 
mony to  every  part;   to  preach  so  that  sanctification 
shall  be  the  end  of  your  ministration,  —  this  requires 
an  industry,  a  perseverance,  a  faith,  a  self-denial,  and 
an  intensity  of  love,  which  is  demanded  by  no  other 
profession.     If  one  is  a  servant  of  men  for  Christ's 
sake  and  for  man's  sake,  there  is  nothing  that  he  can 
aspire  to  which  is  so  noble  as  the  work  which  he  has 
chosen.     It  is  the  highest  calling  to  which  a  man  can 
devote  himself     And  when  you  return  and  come  to 
Zion  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  your  heads ; 
when  out  of  the  heavenly  gate  come  the  multitudes 
whom  your  ministry  has  served,  to  welcome  you,  —  in 
that  hour  it  shall  be  revealed  to  you  that  he  who  serves 
the  eternities  by  serving  the  souls  of  men  and  women, 
is  greater  than  he  who  builds  temples,  or  paints  pic- 
tures, or  governs  empires,  or  secures  to  himself  all  the 
sweet  and  desirable  things  of  earth. 

Our  high  mission,  our  noble  calling,  is  to  build  up 
souls,  to  perfect  the  Christian  life,  and  to  make  man- 
hood acceptable  to  God,  and  radiant  in  the  sight  of  all 
men. 


XII. 


LIFE  AND  TMMOETALITY. 


March  19,  1874. 

^AUL,  in  arguing  the  supremacy  of  moral 
forces  over  physical,  in  one  place  speaks  of 
God  as  having  chosen  the  "  things  that  are 
not  to  bring  to  naught  the  things  that  are," 
—  by  which  we  understand  that  he  has  chosen  the 
forces  that  are  above  our  natural  senses.  Supersen- 
suous  truths,  truths  of  the  other  life,  the  invisible 
truths  of  man's  spirituality,  —  these  are  stronger  than 
the  embattled  forces  of  matter,  whether  in  the  house- 
hold, or  in  society,  or  in  the  church.  The  subtle  secret 
spring  of  highest  power  lies  in  the  direction  of  those 
truths  which  can  have  no  exposition  in  language  or  in 
form,  but  which  dwell  in  the  innermost  consciousness 
or  experience  of  men. 

I  purpose,  this  afternoon,  to  speak  of  the  power 
which  lies  in  the  invisible,  in  respect  to  the  truths  of 
the  future  and  man's  relation  to  the  future  life ;  and 
of  the  uses  which  are  to  be  made  in  your  ministry  of 
the  great  truth  of  continuous  existence  in  the  future 
spiritual,  invisible  state. 


LIFE   AND   IMMORTALITY. 


IMMORTALITY  IN   THE   BIBLE, 


Every  one  who  reflects  for  a  moment  will  be  struck 
with  the  fact  that  this  is  a  truth  which  never  made  its 
appearance  in  the  Old  Testament.  It  would  be  wrong 
to  say  that  the  doctrine  of  immortality  was  not  under- 
stood by  the  old  Jews.  "We  can  scarcely  conceive  of 
experiences  such  as  David  and  other  saints  of  old  had 
in  resj)ect  to  Jehovah,  of  enthusiasm,  love,  and  soul- 
prostration  in  connection  with  the  idea  of  divinity, 
infinite  and  eternal,  that  did  not  carry  with  them 
morally,  and  in  some  way  also  inferentially,  the  doc- 
trine of  continued  existence  on  the  part  of  God's  peo- 
ple ;  but  in  the  Old  Testament,  so  far  as  I  know, 
never,  in  a  single  instance,  is  it  more  than  hinted  at, 
or  even  then  used  other  than  simply  as  a  record  of 
soul-experience.  Not  once  is  it  there  spoken  of  as  a 
dynamical  force  ;  not  once  as  a  force  in  the  realm  of 
emotion.  It  does  not  clearly  appear  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament in  any  way.  It  comes  out  in  the  later 
experiences  of  the  Psalmist  and  the  prophets ;  but  no- 
wdiere  as  a  cogent  motive  and  persuasion  to  good,  nor 
a  dissuasion  from  evil.  I  do  not  remember  a  single 
instance  in  which  continued  existence  is  there  made 
use  of  as  a  motive.  Still  less  do  I  know  of  an  instance 
in  the  Old  Testament  where  the  future  penalties  of 
ill-desert  and  misconduct,  and  the  rewards  of  right 
conduct,  are  distinctly  employed  as  an  argument  in 
favor  of  right  living. 

This  is  a  fact  that  bears  in  a  great  many  different 
directions  which  I  shall  not  at  all  pursue. 

When  we  turn  to  the  New  Testament,  precisely  the 


30-i  LECTURES    ON   PREACHING. 

antithesis  is  seen.  It  is  steeped  in  the  doctrine  of 
continuous  existence.  The  great  after-life  overhangs 
the  New  Testament  as  the  heavens  overhang  the  earth ; 
and  as  the  light  which  brings  color  down  upon  every- 
thing on  the  earth  is  derived  from  the  overbrooding 
heavens,  so  in  the  New  Testament,  colors,  proportions, 
and  I  had  almost  said  moral  qualities,  are  the  result 
of  this  great  truth  of  the  continued  existence  of  im- 
mortality, brought  to  life  and  light  by  Jesus  Christ. 

EFFECT    OF   IMMORTALITY   ON   THE   MIND. 

The  importance  of  this  truth  I  cannot  overstate.  I 
cannot  overstate  the  importance  of  it  to  your  ministry. 
I  wish,  in  the  first  place,  to  discuss  very  briefly  several 
relations  of  this  truth  to  the  different  parts  of  the 
mind;  then  to  sketch  the  Scriptural  or  structural  method 
of  presenting  the  future  life ;  and  then  to  consider,  still 
more  briefly,  how  you  shall  use  this  truth. 

THE   REASON. 

I  can  hardly  conceive  of  the  reason  as  it  existed  or 
exists  unleavened  by  the  peculiar  element  of  belief  in 
continuous  existence.  There  is  a  quality,  there  are 
ranges  and  habitudes,  given  by  this  faith,  which  the  rea- 
son could  not  have  had  in  any  other  way,  even  where  it 
is  exercised  in  relation  to  questions  which  are  artificial, 
but  which  are  discussed  in  the  light  of  eternity  and 
infinity.  Even  in  those  practices  which  obtained,  fault- 
ily, I  think,  in  times  gone  by,  among  the  schoolmen 
(who  were  refined,  and  who  discussed  things  as  they 
related  to  the  moral  government  of  God,  not  in  time, 
nor  as  to  ethics,  but  as  they  stood  associated  with  the 


LIFE   AND   IMMORTALITY.  305 

eternity  of  the  past  and  the  eternity  of  the  future), 
this  belief  was  the  source  of  that  strength  which  comes 
by  projecting  men's  minds  in  such  directions  for  long- 
continued  periods.  They  gave  a  certain  sort  of  richness, 
and  a  certain  power  of  holding  on,  to  the  understand- 
ing. They  gave  to  it  also  a  certain  subtleness  and 
refinement  which,  I  think,  it  can  never  have  by  any 
discussion  of  matter,  nor  by  any  consideration  of  the 
relations  of  men  in  this  sphere.  There  is  something  in 
the  idea  of  extension,  whether  it  be  of  space  or  of  time, 
which  educates  the  reason,  and  gives  it  a  breadth  and 
quality  which  could  be  given  by  no  other  means. 

THE   IMAGINATION. 

Consider  the  relations  of  immortality  to  the  imagina- 
tion. It  may  almost  be  said  that  a  belief  in  immor- 
tality depends  upon  the  existence  of  the  imagination. 
Certainly  it  is  by  the  imagination  principally  that  we 
understand,  not  only  that  the  worlds  were  made,  but 
that  they  are  to  be  unmade  and  made  again.  What- 
ever conception  we  have,  of  what  the  new  heaven 
and  the  new  earth  are  to  be,  comes  through  the 
imagination. 

Faith  is  only  a  modification  of  the  imagination. 
Whoever  wrote  the  Hebrews  defined  faith  to  be  "the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen." 

A  moral  imagination  takes  into  view  the  gi-eat  in- 
visible or  unseen  world;  and  here  it  is  that  the  im- 
agination becomes  real,  fruitful,  strong,  allying  itself 
with  memory  and  with  present  experiences  for  added 
material;  and  with  discrimination  and  the  power  of 
hope  for  projection  into  the  future. 


306  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

The  imagination  in  dealing  with  the  great  moral 
realm  becomes  an  immense  power;  and  it  is  to  be 
noticed,  in  the  structure  of  the  Scriptures,  that  there  is 
a  great  deal  more  instruction  conveyed  to  the  reason 
through  the  imagination  than  is  conveyed  to  the  im- 
agination through  the  reason.  In  the  infantile  condi- 
tion of  every  family  the  imagination  deals  in  fictions, 
—  fictions  that  are  resemblances;  and  it  oftentimes 
is  the  case,  under  such  circumstances,  that  falsity 
is  nearer  the  truth  than  fact.  It  is  not  uu frequently 
true  that  fiction  is  nearer  to  reality  than  reality  is  to 
itself,  —  that  is  to  say,  in  the  impression  which  is 
produced  on  the  minds  of  men.  If  you  were  to  make 
to  a  child  a  complex  philosophical  statement  of  an 
abstract  problem  of  political  economy,  it  would  not  be 
true  to  him ;  some  phantasmagoric  conception  would 
be  framed  in  his  mind :  whereas,  if  you  were  to  make 
a  picture  for  him,  or  tell  him  a  fable  which  had  not  a 
word  of  truth  in  it,  it  might  convey  the  idea  to  his 
mind  better  than  the  thing  itself  w^ould. 

So  it  is  true  that  the  imagination  oftentimes  has 
this  power,  as  a  formative  influence;  as  a  precursor 
of  the  reason ;  as  a  genius  that  nurses  it  and  ministers 
to  it. 

The  imagination  offers  one  of  the  most  instructive 
sides  of  the  mind.  It  is  one  of  the  sides  through 
which  knowledge  can  best  come  to  men;  and  it  is 
employed  throughout  the  Scriptures,  eminently,  as  a 
vehicle  for  imparting  knowledge.  All  the  instruction 
which  we  get  of  higher  spheres,  of  higher  beings, 
and  of  our  continued  existence  comes  through  this 
faculty. 


LIFE  AND  IMMORTALITY.  307 


THE   CONSCIENCE. 

The  conception  of  the  future  and  invisible  life,  and 
of  progress  in  that  life,  materially  affects  also  the 
conscience,  making  it  strong  and  acute.  But  that 
is  not  all.  Ethics  whets  the  conscience,  and  prac- 
tice drills  it ;  but  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong  is 
something  larger  than  mere  conventions  and  rules 
make  it,  and  something  larger  than  society  makes  it. 
It  is  in  reality  a  part  of  the  essential  constitution  of 
things,  not  being  localized  nor  secularized,  but  having 
infinite  scope. 

Conscience  lias  in  it,  and  in  its  relfvtions,  something 
of  sublimity,  as  well  as  of  terror.  There  is  such  a 
thing  as  sublimity  of  joy  and  sublimity  of  fear ;  and 
it  stands  related  to  the  elements  of  necessity,  which, 
beginning  and  developing  imperfectly  here,  go  on  in 
volume  and  momentum  and  power  forever  and  for- 
ever. A  large  conscience  has  in  it  a  juridical  power 
which  gives  it  breadth  and  potency.  A  small  con- 
science, a  nibbling,  pinching  conscience,  is  like  a  petty 
justice  of  the  peace  who  thinks  of  his  own  dignity, 
and  who  is  but  a  pygmy  compared  with  a  great 
statesman,  or  a  high-minded  king,  or  a  judge  built  on 
the  true  pattern.  The  larger  you  can  make  your  con- 
science, the  broader,  the  grander,  the  more  far-reaching, 
will  be  the  character  which  will  proceed  from  it.  And, 
whatever  its  conventional  training  may  be,  if  it  grows 
up  under  the  light  of  a  coming  eternity,  it  will  take 
on  noble  proportions. 


308  LECTURES   ON  PKEACHING. 


THE  AFFECTIONS. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  affections,  on  which  a  sense 
of  continuous  existence  in  the  invisible  reahn  has  the 
same  effect  that  the  sunlight  has  on  flowers,  when  it 
makes  them  blossom.  It  is  easy  to  begin  loving ;  but 
how  hard  it  is  to  keep  on  !  It  is  easy  to  begin,  on  our 
generous  side,  and  see  persons  in  ideal  lights.  Is  there 
anything  more  beautiful  in  conduct  than  she  who  has 
entranced  us  ?  How  admirable  is  the  movement  of  her 
judgment  and  mind,  as  we  stand  adoring  her !  Every 
motion  is  grace,  and  every  word  is  music.  So  it  goes 
on,  during  all  the  period  in  which  we  worship.  So 
long  as  we  adore  an  object,  that  object  is  beautiful  and 
bright  to  us.  But  by  and  by  there  comes  a  junction 
by  which  the  two  are  made  one ;  and  they  act  together 
on  a  lower  plane,  where  they  are  tempted  to  a  thou- 
sand failings  and  errors  of  life,  and  where  they  are 
often  overcome  by  temptation ;  and  gradually  there 
comes  a  sense  of  imperfection,  of  limitation  in  judg- 
ment, and  of  mistakes  committed.  Innumerable  little 
trivialities  occur,  They  begin  to  see  things  differently. 
The  question  arises  as  to  who  shall  be  the  trunk  and 
wdio  shall  twine.  All  these  tilings,  and  many  more, 
come  in  to  mar  the  picture  which  had  been  formed. 
Its  bright  colors  are  tarnished.  The  vision  is  lowered 
from  that  land  out  of  which  we  thought  nothing  could 
be  lowered,  —  the  land  of  imagination  and  romance,  — 
into  the  realm  of  actuality.  And  then,  0,  what  alter- 
nations of  long  and  weary  wastes  of  common  experience, 
with  occasional  refreshments !  What  sad  and  foggy 
days  of  indifference !     How  poor,  oftentimes,  is  wedded 


LIFE  AND   IMMORTALITY.  309 

life,  or  life  in  conjunctions  of  friendship,  because  there 
is  not  one  in  ten  thousand  that  is  made  good  enough  to 
keep  present  to  the  reason  and  the  moral  sense  the 
aspects  of  aspiration  of  the  higher  nature. 

Young  gentlemen,  if  you  want  to  love,  love  must  be 
a  thing  that  is  immortal.  It  must  be  projected  in  the 
imagination  far  beyond  the  sphere  of  the  body  and  the 
realm  of  time.  You  must  learn  to  see  the  things 
wliijch  you  love  in  their  higher  life,  in  their  coming 
glory ;  and  whatever  repairs  of  love  are  made  must 
needs  be  made  by  heavenly  mechanics.  If  one  could 
only  train  himself  evermore  to  lift  up  against  the 
background  of  immortality  the  things  that  are  dear 
to  him  and  that  he  would  hold  dear  forever,  and 
see  them  as  they  are  to  be,  and  imagine  them  as 
they  shall  be  when  God  has  passed  the  final  finishing 
hand  over  them,  how  grand  and  glorious  would  affec- 
tion become ! 

We  do  not  bathe  our  hearts  enough  in  the  other  life. 
We  do  not  often  enough  send  our  friends,  in  imagina- 
tion, into  the  ethereal  heights  where  we  shall  see  them, 
above  the  vulgar  elements  of  secular  life,  in  the  alti- 
tudes and  beatitudes  of  a  growing  and  eternal  love. 

THIS   WOELD,   IN   THE   LIGHT   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

Heaven  is  necessary  to  earth ;  and  so  a  conception 
of  continuous  existence  in  the  life  to  come  is,  by  parity 
of  reasoning,  necessary  to  a  right  consideration  of  men 
on  earth.  It  is  almost  impossible  for  men  to  project 
themselves  very  far  in  this  world  without  finding  that 
they  are,  on  that  account,  losing  the  sympathy  of  men 
around  about  them.     Elective  affinities,  therefore,  take 


310  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

the  place  of  brotherhood.  So  men  with  the  imagina- 
tion and  the  reason  highly  cultivated  look,  if  not  with 
contempt,  yet  with  coldness,  on  the  lower  rank  of  men 
who  have  no  intellectual  development,  or  no  ideas  in 
common  with  theirs,  by  which  they  can  come  into 
genial  and  intimate  fellowship  with  them. 

You  will  see  in  society  that  men  tend  to  classify 
themselves  aU  the  while.  Men  of  genius  are  strongly 
drawn  toward  men  of  genius.  Men  of  common  pur- 
suits are  powerfully  drawn  together.  The  community 
is  perpetually  stratifying  itself.  And  there  is  no  harm 
in  this,  provided  the  upper  classes  are  perpetually  a 
drawing-up  force  to  the  lower.  It  is  because  there  is 
selfishness  in  this  that  there  is  harm  in  it. 

There  must  be  some  way,  therefore,  in  which  men 
can  make  up  for  the  deficiencies  which  exist  in  those 
about  them,  if  they  would  feel  a  vivid,  keen  sense  of 
interest  in  them.  But  when  I  think  that  men  are  to 
be  hereafter  not  what  they  are  here ;  when  I  think  of 
the  poor  ignorant  men  who  are  inordinately  developed 
in  this  faculty,  and  undeveloped  in  that ;  when  1  think 
of  men  who  are  overwrought  in  some  directions,  and 
underwrought  in  others ;  when  I  see  men  sujDpressed 
and  kept  down  by  their  circumstances  and  by  the 
tyranny  of  their  fellow-men,  I  have  to  find  hope  for 
them  in  the  future.  When  I  see  those  creatures  that 
seem  to  dodge  between  the  animal  and  the  man,  so 
that  we  almost. doubt  where  to  rank  them,  I  cannot 
look  at  them  as  they  are,  —  certainly  when  I  have  con- 
scious sensitiveness  to  purity,  and  refinement,  and  love, 
and  beauty,  and  dignity,  and  amplitude  of  manhood,  — 
and  have  a  feelin!]^  of  brotherhood  toward  them.     It  is 


LIFE   AND   IMMORTALITY.  311 

only  when  I  say,  looking  at  them  by  the  help  of  imagi- 
nation, "  0,  these  are  but  the  seeds,  and  these  creatures 
shall  yet  be  lifted  up,  and  opened,  and  carried  forward, 
and  developed  in  the  other  life  !  1  stand  not  before  the 
flower,  but  before  the  seed  or  the  bulb,"  —  it  is  only 
then  that  I  can  look  with  complacency  upon  them. 

What  homelier  things  are  there  than  gladiolus  roots  ? 
But  when,  in  the  autumn  or  spring,  I  plant  them  in 
beds,  I  never  look  at  them  except  with  pleasure,  be- 
cause I  think  of  those  spikes  which  I  shall  erelong 
see  covered  with  blossoms.  I  have  seen  them,  and  I 
therefore  have  faith  that  I  shall  see  them  again. 

So  I  look  upon  the  homeliest  of  human  roots  and 
bulbs,  and  descry  in  their  future  condition  glorious 
attributes.  The  habit  of  associating  them,  not  with 
the  baseness  of  their  present  state,  not  with  their  mate- 
rial life,  not  with  their  secular  experience,  but  -with  the 
invisible,  with  the  power  of  the  world  to  come,  with 
the  glory  of  God,  resting  upon  their  elevated  natures,  — 
■this  enables  me,  when  I  look  upon  them,  to  gain  a 
conception  of  something  that  dignifies  and  beautifies 
even  the  present.  I  do  not  know  how  we  can  be 
Christian  democrats  unless  we.  estimate  men  by  what 
they  are  to  be,  and  not  by  what  they  are.  I  cannot  kiss 
unwashed  folks,  who  are  repulsive  to  me  both  in  body 
and  mind,  except  when  I  see  the  invisible  that  is  in 
them  and  the  future  life  to  which  they  are  coming. 
"When  I  can  see  through  the  opaque  that  covers  them, 
then  I  have  that  which  destroys  the  disagreeableness 
of  this  mortal  state. 

A  mother,  hesitating,  knows  not  why  she  is  so  drawn 
to  that  wretched,  tottering,  unshapen,  disfigured  crea- 


312  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

tiire ;  and  in  a  moment  she  rushes  to  him.  It  is  her 
son  that  now  she  sees,  and  not  his  hideous  outward 
garb,  but  the  inwardness  of  her  old  remembered  love 
for  him. 

There  is  a  power  of  love  in  the  human  soul  that  can 
extend  itself  to  all  ranks  and  conditions,  and  can  see 
them  as  God  sees  them,  —  as  they  are  to  be,  and  not  as 
they  are ;  and  the  fellowship  which  is  necessary  among 
mankind  demands  this.  If  you  sweep  out  of  life  the 
doctrine  of  after-existence  by  bringing  in  the  doctrine 
of  annihilation,  or  the  cold  philosophical  declaration 
that  there  is  no  evidence  of  man's  continuance  beyond 
the  grave,  wliich  is  to  us  substantially  the  doctrine  of 
man's  non-existence  in  a  world  to  come,  —  if  you  do 
this  you  might  as  well  spread  sackcloth  over  the  heav- 
ens and  expect  agriculture  and  horticulture  to  go  on 
in  the  earth,  as  to  expect  under  such  circvmistances  to 
have  life  go  on  with  its  amenities,  sweetnesses,  and 
inspirations. 

The  whole  conception  of  manhood,  as  it  has  existed 
since  the  prevalence  of  Christianity ;  the  conception  of 
the  best  parts  of  our  nature ;  the  conception  of  the 
subtlest  elements  of  admiration,  and  reverence,  and 
trust  in  men,  —  that  conception  is  founded  not  sim2:)ly 
on  what  a  man  is,  but  on  what  he  is  to  be. 

We  liave  to  take  men  as  we  eat  fish.  We  can- 
not eat  fish  as  they  are  when  they  are  caught.  They 
must  be  scaled,  the  head  must  be  taken  off,  the 
fins  must  be  removed,  the  tail  must  be  cut  off,  the 
bones  must  be  taken  out;  and  what  is  left  is  all  that 
is  really  good. 

We  have  to  take  a  man  with  allowances  here  and 


LIFE  AND   IMMOKTALITY.  313 

there :  and  when  you  conceive  of  a  man  with  all  his 
faults  taken  away ;  when  you  sit  with  a  critical  and 
cynical  eye,  and  analyze  him,  saying,  "  So  much  good 
for  reason,  so  much  for  moral  sense,  so  much  for  the 
affections,  so  much  for  comely  appearance,  and  so  much 
for  graceful  manners,  the  rest  is  good  for  nothing"  ;  — 
when  thus  you  take  off  a  man's  scales  and  fins,  and 
everything  external,  there  is  not  a  great  deal  left  of 
him,  —  only  just  a  mouthful. 

But  when  you  begin  the  other  process,  —  that  of 
synthesis ;  when  you  take  the  faulty  faculty,  and  build 
it  up  without  blemish,  without  spot,  without  wrinkle ; 
when  you  take  the  imagination  and  eclaircize  it,  and 
give  it  horizon ;  when  you  take  the  moral  sense,  and 
give  it  health  and  tone  and  power ;  when  you  look  at 
men,  and  habituate  yourself  to  look  at  them  in  their 
heavenly  aspects,  and  think  what  they  are  to  be  in 
the  far  future,  — you  will  find  that  it  will  draw  you 
nearer  to  them.  It  will  make  friendship  dearer  and 
more  sacred  to  you.  It  wiU  make  the  human  race 
seem  more  to  you  than  mere  aphides  or  vermin,  grop- 
ing upon,  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  otherwise  they 
seem  very  insignificant. 

Why,  to-day,  the  whole  continent  of  Africa  would 
hardly  make  one  single  full-grown  man,  with  qualities 
such  as  those  which  enter  into  manhood  with  us.  0, 
how  mean  and  cheap  a  man  is,  judged  of  by  what  he 
appears  to  be  in  many  parts  of  this  world !  A  million 
men  might  be  slaughtered  in  China  to-day,  and  the 
world  would  not  lose  an  idea  or  a  function.  As  the 
sheep  of  the  field,  perishing,  leave  nothing  to  be 
missed,  so  there   are  nations  that  are  of  such   little 


14 


314  LECTURES  ON  TEE  ACHING. 

worth  that  if  they  were  annihilated  the  world  would 
miss  nothing. 

I  cannot  bear  to  think  that  the  old  world  is  carrying 
such  a  worthless  burden;  and  I  gain  relief  from  the 
anguish  of  the  thought  by  turning  to  the  life  and  ex- 
ample and  teachings  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He 
gives  us  assurance  tliat  the  future  of  mankind  will  be 
different  from  their  present  condition.  In  the»light  of 
the  New  Testament  men  mount  up ;  they  bud ;  tliey 
blossom ;  they  bear  fruit ;  and  why  should  we  not  give 
them  the  advantage  of  the  disclosures  which  have  been 
made,  through  the  Saviour,  of  their  state  in  the  world 
to  come  ?  Why  should  we  not  couple  ourselves  with 
our  race,  not  by  cold  scientific  notions  of  fact,  but  by 
the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  the  revelation  of 
Scripture,  and  by  that  blessed  power  by  which  faith  — 
the  evidence  of  things  not  seen  —  acts. 

THE    BIBLE   VIEW    OF    THE    FUTURE. 

The  other  life  is  presented  to  us  in  Scripture  both 
in  light  and  in  shadow.  It  has  its  dark  side  and  it  has 
its  bright  side.  The  New  Testament,  however,  uses 
the  bright  side  in  immense  disproportion  to  the  dark, — 
as  it  should.  The  other  life  is  a  sphere  in  which  men 
reap  wliat  they  sow  in  this.  If  they  sow  to  the  flesh 
they  reap  corruption.  The  world  to  come  is  a  land 
where  the  natural  results  of  wrong-doing  work  them- 
selves out. 

This  view  of  the  future  inspires  fear  and  sadness. 
Pear  always  %vorks  toward  repression.  It  has  no  aspi- 
ration in  it.  Its  tendency  is  to  drag  one  downward 
toward  the  flesh.     But  it  is  indispensable  in  the  early 


LIFE  AND   IMMORTALITY.  315 

periods  of  national  existence  or  human  life.  It  cannot 
be  dispensed  with  in  the  lower  stages  of  the  develop- 
ment of  mankind.  And  as  every  man,  in  his  personal 
experience,  passes  through  what  is  equivalent  to  the 
savage  condition  of  the  race  itself;  as  every  child  is  at 
first  a  beast,  an  animal  merely,  and  rises  up  through  all 
the  stages  of  unfolding  into  its  own  little  round,  as  the 
race  has  already  done  in  its  larger  round ;  so  there  is  a 
necessity  that  there  should  be  a  certain  amount  of  fear 
to  hold  men  back,  to  restrain  them,  and  to  teach  them 
to  adapt  means  to  ends.  We  are  not,  therefore,  to  omit 
or  to  shrink  from  such  delineations  of  the  dark  side 
of  continuous  existence  in  the  world  to  come,  as  shall 
excite  in  men  necessary  fear.  But,  after  all,  while  our 
Master,  more  than  any  other  writer  or  teacher  of  the 
New  Testament,  dealt  with  the  sterner  features  of 
continued  existence,  the  characteristic  element  of  his 
.instruction  is  hope,  as  a  power  of  salvation.  It  is  the 
conception  of  a  continued  life  of  joy,  it  is  the  vision  of 
future  blessedness,  that  gives  to  the  New  Testament  its 
pecuhar  and  distinctive  color. 

ADMINISTEATION   OF   HOPE   A^D   FEAR. 

"WT^iat  proportion  of  fear  or  of  hope  you  are  to  em- 
ploy in  your  preaching  you  cannot  determine  by  any 
mathematical  rule.  If  I  were  to  ask  a  physician, 
"What  proportion  of  diluents  or  of  astringents  ought 
one  to  employ  in  his  medical  practice  ? "  he  would 
laugh  at  me,  and  say,  "  That  depends  upon  the  organi- 
zation of  the  patient,  and  upon  what  his  disease  is." 
You  cannot  say  that  a  physician  ought  to  use  diluents 
twice  where  he  uses  astringents  once ;  or  that  he  ought 


316  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

to  use  astringents  five  times  where  he  uses  diluents 
twice.  The  amount  of  each  to  be  used  will  vary- 
continuously  according  to  circumstances.  And  the  idea 
of  attempting  to  preach  doctrines  in  given  proportions, 
judged  of  by  exact  relations,  saying,  "This,  being  the 
great  central  view,  must  be  preached  just  so  much  ,• 
and  that  is  a  collateral  view,  and  must  be  preached  so 
much," — -the  idea  of  preacliing  thus  according  to  an 
imaginary  scheme  is  absurd,  preposterous.  You  are  to 
preach  at  one  time  one  view,  and  at  another  time 
another  view,  according  to  their  relations  to  wliat  you 
have  to  do  upon  the  human  mind. 

How  often  shall  I  prune  my  vines  ?  That  depends 
upon  how  many  vines  I  have,  upon  their  particular 
kind,  uj)on  what  soil  they  are  in,  upon  whether  they 
grow  rampantly  or  not,  and  upon  what  they  need. 
Frequently  we  prune  vines  by  pinching  them  in,  in- 
stead of  using  the  knife,  to  make  them  grow  right. 

And  so  it  is  in  regard  to  the  great  truths  of  hope  and 
fear.  We  are  to  administer  them  with  reference  to  the 
mind-qualities  with  wliich  we  have  to  deal,  and  with 
reference  to  the  state  or  condition  of  those  mind-quali- 
ties, in  each  particular  parish ;  and  respecting  these 
things  every  man  of  you  must  judge  for  himself. 

PICTURES   OF   HEAVEN. 

The  Scriptural  revelation  of  the  life  that  is  to  come 
is  pictorial,  and  and  not  literal.  That  there  are  elements 
in  it  which  will  be  found  to  have  been  true  of  our 
earthly  experience  there  can  be  no  doubt ;  still,  the 
structural  method  of  tlie  New  Testament  in  revealing 
our  future  life  is  one  which  addresses  itself  to  us  through 


LIFE  AND   IMMOETALITY.  317 

our  imagination,  through  our  reason,  through  our  affec- 
tions, and  through  our  sentiments.  It  is  a  sublime 
auroral  fresco.  Of  course,  the  best  things,  both  nega- 
tive and  positive,  were  taken  to  reveal  the  heavenly- 
land.  The  things  which  men  on  earth  feel  to  be  the 
greatest  grievances,  —  the  lash,  the  dungeon,  the  sword, 
disease,  poverty,  over-matched  toil,  unendurable  weak- 
ness, fatigue,  disappointments,  sorrows,  the  wrenching 
off  of  branches,  the  flowing  of  tears  in  grief,  deeply 
wounded  affections,  —  these  tliin^rs  one  who  lives  loncj 
learns  to  recognize.  They  are  peculiarities  belonging 
to  this  lower  sphere.  They  are  the  negatives  by  which 
heaven  is  described  as  a  place  where  men  never  tire ; 
where  there  is  no  night;  where  no  tears  are  shed; 
wiiere  sickness  does  not  come ;  where  nothing  molests 
or  makes  afraid.  If  fear  were  taken  away  from  the 
myriads  of  earth,  what  a  translation  it  would  be !  A 
land  without  fear,  —  what  a  land  that  must  be  !  Such 
negatives  are  very  significant. 

But  the  positives  are  also  very  signficant.  Things 
in  their  best  estate  are  used  to  represent  heaven.  The 
noblest  affections,  carried  up  to  the  point  of  effluence 
or  ecstasy,  are  employed  for  this  purpose  ;  and  although 
a  singing  man  might  imagine  that  heaven  was  a  mag- 
nificent class  of  singers  standing  about  the  throne  and 
singing  the  best  hymns  out  of  the  best  collections, 
yet  if  you  look  at  in  its  larger  and  better  aspects, 
heaven  is  that  state  in  which  the  human  affections  are 
carried  up  to  their  highest  condition,  and  where  they 
act  with  spontaneity  and  force,  forever  pouring  tliem- 
selves  out  in  ecstasy.  This  is  the  larger  meaning  of 
praise  and  worship,  —  the  overflow  of  vital  souls  in  a 


318  LECTURES   ON"   PREACHING. 

land  without  fatigue,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Divine 
presence,  where  they  can  bear  perpetual  rapture,  as 
they  cannot  bear  it  in  the  physical  body. 

We  are  to  use  the  Bible  just  as  it  is,  in  so  far  as  it 
does  us  any  good.  I  confess  that  when  it  talks  to  me 
about  kings  with  crowns  on  their  heads,  I  wink  and  go 
on.  I  do  not  care  about  kings.  That  figure  is  without 
force  in  democratic  communities.  If  king  means  any- 
thing to  you,  it  is  because  you  place  an  artificial 
importance  upon  it.  It  is  because  you  have  poured 
cologne-water  on  it,  which  has  a  fragrance  that  does  not 
belong  to  the  word  itself.  Once,  kings  fascinated  the 
imagination  of  the  world;  and  to  say  to  the  Jews 
that  they  were  to  be  kings  and  priests  to  God  was  to 
set  their  imaginations  on  fire;  but  to  tell  me  that  I 
shall  ever  be  a  priest  in  heaven  brings  no  light  and  no 
joy  to  my  mind.  It  makes  the  future  very  stiff  and 
very  disagreeable  to  my  conception. 

It  is  not  until,  catching  the  stmctural  genius  of  the 
New  Testament,  —  its  mode  of  representation,  —  we 
take  the  best  things  which  have  been  revealed  to  men, 
the  noblest  traits  which  Christianity  has  brought  out, 
the  most  royal  experiences  which  have  been  known  to 
human  nature,  and  put  them  together  and  call  them 
heaven,  that  we  shall  come  to  a  conception  of  the 
future  which  shall  be  satisfying  to  our  souls.  And  we 
have  a  right  to  make  our  heaven  thus,  so  that  it  sliall 
shine  witli  radiance,  and  come  to  us  with  a  sense  of 
personality:  so  God  permits  us  to  make  our  heaven 
for  ourselves.  Our  heaven  is  a  picture  whicli  we  paint 
by  our  imagination,  and  into  which  we  put  what  is 
most  precious  in  this  world,  all  the  \\hile  remembering 


LIFE  AND  IMMORTALITY.  ^       319 

that  it  is  but  a  faint  representation  of  the  heaven  to 
which  we  are  going. 

INDIVIDUAL   CONCEPTIONS   OF   HEAVEN. 

One  impression  of  heaven  is  that  it  is  a  good  place 
to  escape  to,  out  of  hell ;  and  in  that  sense  it  is  a  kind 
of  insui-ance  office  where  a  man  gets  his  policy  with 
which  he  hopes  to  get  through  this  world  safely. 

But  as  you  go  on,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  sentiment, 
and  persons  begin  to  transfer  those  things  which  are 
most  precious  to  them  here  —  the  heart's  undying  treas- 
ures—  to  that  vital  heaven  which  every  man  must 
make  for  himself  By  and  by,  when  persons  sink 
under  the  burdens  of  life,  and  their  powers  begin  to 
fail,  and  God's  love  takes  on  the  form  of  discipline, 
and  the  yoke  galls  their  neck,  they  begin  to  feel  their 
scholarship;  they  begin  to  realize  that  they  are  the 
disciples  of  the  Sufferer;  that  through  suffering  they 
are  to  attain  glory  and  immortality.  Suffering  begins 
to  interpret  to  them  the  heavenly  kingdom. 

0,  what  a  dry  and  arid  place  it  has  been  to  many 
and  many  a  one  until  God  struck  the  soul  through 
father,  through  mother,  through  some  brother  or  some 
sister!  Then  heaven  grew  populous  to  them,  as  it 
grows  populous  to  you,  as  you  send  there  one  and 
another  that  you  have  loved. 

O,  how  many  times  have  men  —  great,  strong,  stal- 
wart men  —  come  to  the  gate,  and  found  it  fastened  by 
a  stone  which  they  could  not  roll  away  themselves, 
and  which  nobody  could  roll  away  for  them,  until  a 
little  child  from  out  of  the  cradle,  with  its  feeble 
hands  was  strong  enough  to  roll  it  away,  and  open  the 


320  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

gate,  and  let  them  look  into  heaven !  How  many  men 
have  looked  in  to  find  their  children,  and  beheld  for 
the  first  time  the  light  and  glory  of  the  other  life  ! 

Christian  friends,  I,  who  have  sent  five  dear  ones 
there,  have  come  to  realize  the  truth  of  the  words,  "  A 
child  shall  lead  them."  My  departed  children  have 
led  me  to  them. 

And  so  we  build  heaven  out  of  our  joys,  out  of  our 
sufferings,  out  of  our  griefs,  out  of  our  experiences, 
taking  the  best  and  noblest  things,  and  arranging  them 
so  that  they  shall  fill  the  imagination,  and  by  the 
imagination  warm  the  heart,  and  by  the  heart  illumine 
the  understanding.  Thus  we  construct  our  heaven  to 
suit  our  personality,  always  bearing  in  mind  that  what 
we  imagine  is  but  the  seed-form  of  what  the  reality 
shaU  be.  We  know  that  our  conceptions  of  heaven 
come  short  of  what  it  actually  is.  We  know  that  it 
shall  be  better  than  we  imagine  it  to  be.  We  know 
that  love  shall  be  grander,  that  joy  shall  be  more 
wondrous,  and  that  worship  shall  be  more  transcend- 
ent, than  anything  that  we  think  of.  It  is  true,  as 
the  Apostle  said,  to  whom  these  things  had  been  re- 
vealed, that  eye  hath  not  seen,  that  ear  hath  not  heard, 
and  that  it  hath  not  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to 
conceive,  the  things  which  God  hath  reserved  for  those 
that  love  him.  To  stand  in  the  presence  of  God,  to 
love  God  as  I  love  my  friends,  to  be  as  familiar  with 
him  as  I  am  with  them,  and  to  talk  with  him,  —  these 
are  things  which  cannot  be  comprehended  by  us  in 
this  world. 

I  walk  with  men  of  science,  and  am  associated  with 
them  ;  but  is  not  God  the  greatest  Scientist  ?     I  listen 


LIFE  AND  IMMORTALITY.  321 

to  men  of  transcendent  eloquence ;  but  is  not  he  the 
greatest  Speaker  ?  I  behold  with  delight  the  works  of 
superior  artists ;  but  is  not  he  the  primal  Artist,  and 
the  grandest  ?  Who  is  there  among  his  infinite  crea- 
tures than  whom  he  does  not  stand  infinitely  larger  in 
power  and  wisdom  and  glory  ?  And  I  am  his ;  he  is 
mine ;  and  there  shall  be  a  familiarity  in  my  intercourse 
with  him  which  you  cannot  take  away  from  love. 
Such  is  my  heaven. 

A  CONTINUOUS   SENSE   OF  THE   INFINITE. 

Now,  in  your  ministration  you  should  deal  largely 
with  this  great  realm  of  the  invisible,  of  the  infinite, 
of  the  illimitable,  and  of  the  absolute.  These  are  the 
elements  which  a  man  needs  to  take  him  farthest  away 
from  the  limitations  and  narrowness  to  which  he  is 
subject  by  reason  of  his  animal  nature.  You  are  born 
animals  with  an  undeveloped  spirit;  and  what  you 
need  in  all  your  life  is  that  which  shall  carry  up  the 
higher  part  of  your  nature,  and  make  it  more  and  more 
floriferous,  more  and  more  beautiful.  This  is  done  by 
opening  the  whole  upper  air  and  realm  to  your  interior 
being.  And  as  it  is  with  you,  so  it  must  be  with  your 
people. 

^  While,  then,  you  preach  topically  on  the  subject  of 
heaven  or  of  hell ;  while  you  preach  formal  and  stated 
sermons  in  respect  to  the  great  hereafter,  —  the  great 
above-all  and  around-all  and  under-all,  —  there  ought 
to  be  something  more  than  that.  Preaching  the  glories 
of  the  other  life  should  form,  constantly,  a  part  of  your 
ministry ;  but,  besides,  you  should  be  so  full  of  it  that 
wherever  you  go  you  shall  carry  with  you  unconsciously 
14*  u 


322  LECTUKES  ON  PREACHING. 

the  breath  of  the  other  world.  I  know  that  a  man 
has  been  through  my  garden  if  he  walks  from  it  into 
my  house,  by  the  smell  of  his  raiment,  although  I  have 
not  seen  him  there,  and  have  not  been  told  that  he  has 
been  there.  I  can  tell  what  part  of  the  garden  he  has 
been  in.  I  know  my  heliotropes  ;  and  if  he  has  walked 
through  that  avenue  along  which  they  grow,  and  then 
has  come  into  my  presence,  he  brings  something  of 
their  fragrance  with  him,  and  I  discern  it. 

Now,  your  soul  should  dwell  in  those  higher  concep- 
tions and  loftier  realms  which  belong  to  the  other  life, 
so  that  there  should  be  the  smell  of  heaven  upon  your 
raiment,  if  I  may  so  say ;  so  that  those  who  come  in 
contact  with  you  shall  have  a  sense  of  the  infinite  life 
that  is  to  be  hereafter. 

In  the  lectures  which  I  have  given  you,  I  have,  with 
a  purpose,  emphasized  the  necessity  of  the  study  of 
mind,  of  mental  philosophy  in  its  living  and  practical 
forms.  I  have  dwelt  a  great  deal  in  analysis.  I  have 
spoken  many  things  to  show  you  how  to  preach  to  the 
human  mind.  Bat  now,  your  special  danger  will  be 
that  you  will  become  mere  analysts  of  worldly  things ; 
that  you  will  become  specialists  in  morality  and  in 
ethics. 

There  was  a  right  good  reason  why  the  old  preacher.s 
were  afraid  to  preach  morals :  not  that  they  are  of  no 
value ;  but  that  a  man  who  gives  himself  largely  to 
preaching  moral  and  ethical  relations  is  apt  to  lose 
that  scope  and  power  which  comes  from  those  relations 
which  are  broader  and  higlier.  Abiding  in  the  infinite 
and  eternal  prepares  one  to  bring  to  his  task  of  preach- 
ing something  more  than  analytical  power  and  secular 


LIFE  AND   IMMORTALITY.  323 

narrowness.  If  you  live  much  in  the  realm  of  the 
spiritual,  you  have  the  counterpoise  of  that  part  of 
your  mind  which  allies  you  to  the  physical  and  mate- 
rial. You  will  need  to  have  the  spirit  of  Christ  abiding 
in  your  souls  in  order  that  you  may  be  what  you  were 
ordained  to  be,  consolers  and  comforters. 

THE   JOY   OF   BRINGING   COMFORT. 

My  dear  friends,  I  hope  to  have  an  inheritance  in 
heaven,  —  but  not  as  pay  for  what  I  have  done  in  this 
world.  I  have  had  my  pay  as  I  have  gone  along.  It 
has  not  been  in  any  sense  of  complacency  as  to  elo- 
quence, or  orthodoxy,  or  anything  of  that  sort ;  it  has 
been  that  God,  in  his  providence,  gave  me  a  tempera- 
ment and  a  training  which  led  me  to  inspire  men 
with  courage,  with  hope,  and  with  consolation;  and 
I  have  been  blessed  to  an  unusual  extent  as  a  com- 
forter. There  is  nothing  sweeter  to  me,  in  this  world, 
than  to  meet  one  and  another,  as  I  do  continually, 
who  say, "  I  never  could  have  gone  through  my  busi- 
ness troubles,  Mr.  Beecher,  but  for  your  comforting 
preaching " ;  or,  "  When  sorrow  came  into  my  house- 
hold, my  heart  was  broken ;  and  I  owe  it  to  you  that 
I  was  lifted,  as  by  the  voice  of  angels,  into  a  realm 
of  peace."  I  do  not  care  so  much  for  praises, — 
provided  I  have  them;  I  do  not  care  so  much  for  the 
approbation  of  men,  —  though  that  is  a  great  deal ;  but 
the  sense  that  God  has  enabled  me  to  help  a  soul  in 
its  extremity,  to  find  men  in  their  Gethsemanes  and 
comfort  them,  —  this  I  care  a  great  deal  for.  If  I 
should  die  to-morrow,  you  could  not  take  it  from  me. 
I  have  lived,  and  what  I  have  done  will  stand.     I  have 


324  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

lived ;  and  whether  my  future  should  be  in  heaven  or 
in  hell,  the  fact  that  I  have  been  an  instrument  of 
comfort  and  upbuilding  to  men  cannot  be  obliterated. 
I  have  my  reward  for  that  in  the  joy  which  comes 
from  the  consciousness  that  I  have  been  permitted  to 
carry  the  balm  of  consolation  to  those  who  were  in 
trouble.     You  cannot  stop  up  a  perennial  fountain. 

Now,  you  must  preach  so  that  men  .who  are  under 
burdens  and  cares  shall  from  your  preaching  derive 
stimulus  and  hope,  by  which  they  are  helped  to  go 
through  their  various  appointed  allotments,  so  that 
when  they  come  to  trouble  they  will  think  of  you ;  so 
that  when  they  come  to  anguishful  experiences  you 
shall  be  one  who  can  give  an  upward  direction  to  their 
minds,  whereby  they  shall  seek  outside  of  themselves 
for  their  sources  of  strength  and  support.  The  general 
drift  and  tendency  of  your  preaching  should  be  such 
as  to  lead  men  to  the  fountain  of  comfort,  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Great  Infinite.  Earth  does  not  grow  the  herb 
of  consolation.  It  is  a  heavenly  plant.  It  blooms 
near  the  Throne.  It  is  a  part  of  the  tree  of  life  whose 
leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  nations. 

THE   preacher's   REFUGE. 

And  you  will  need  these  views,  dear  brethren,  for 
your  own  sake  as  well  as  for  your  people,  —  although 
the  ministry  is  the  noblest  profession.  To  be  a  minis- 
ter of  the  gospel,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term,  is  to  be 
a  laborer  in  the  most  glorious  sphere  on  earth.  And 
I  think  it  unworthy  for  ministers  to  talk  about  their 
cares  and  anxieties  and  burdens  and  responsibilities. 
Ministers  do  not  have  as  many  cares  and  anxieties  as 


LIFE   AND   IMMORTALITY.  325 

lawyers  and  doctors  who  are  worthy  of  their  professions. 
Tlie  ministry  is  one  of  the  cleanest  of  horticultural 
professions.  Men  in  the  ministry  deal  with  dirt,  to  be 
sure;  but  it  is  dirt  that  brings  out  flowers  all  the 
while. 

And  yet  you  will  often  find  the  need  of  supernal 
comfort  in  your  life-work.  Sometimes,  in  the  discharge 
of  your  duties,  you  will  find  that  virtue  has  gone  out 
of  you,  when  you  are  obliged,  by  your  sympathy,  to 
take  one  soul  and  another  and  carry  them  over  the 
flood.  It  will  excite  and  exhaust  you.  And  you  will 
often  be  depressed  by  the  sense  of  being  fruitless.  And 
you  wdll  sometimes  be  obliged  to  stop  in  the  way,  from 
sickness  or  weakness,  when  your  soul  is  full  of  zeal, 
and  see  others  pass  by  you  in  the  race. 

I  have  seen,  among  a  cluster  of  boys  that  were  all 
exhilaration  and  power,  a  little  crippled  boy,  standing 
and  looking  on  wistfully  amidst  the  whirl  and  excite- 
ment about  him. 

So,  sometimes,  you  will  stand  and  witness  the  power 
and  victory  of  others,  and  feel  pain  that  by  reason  of 
weakness  you  are  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  joining 
in  the  struggle.  And  there  will  be  a  thousand  trials, 
of  bodily  strength,  of  mental  strain,  of  perplexities  and 
discouragements  and  failures  and  temptations  and  be- 
reavements,—  not  only  the  ordinary  lot  of  man,  but 
trials  peculiar  to  your  profession  and  your  work.  You 
will  have  enough  to  trouble  you  in  one  way  and 
another. 

And  let  me  tell  you,  fly  wp  !  Do  not  stay  down 
here  where  troubles  dwell.  Go  above  the  dust  that 
rises  from  the  ground,  and  above  the  thunder  of  earthly 


326  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

noises.  Betake  yourselves  to  the  realm  of  eternal 
peace,  to  the  refuge  of  God's  heart,  to  the  love  of 
Christ's  bosom,  to  the  apartment  of  God's  house  which 
the  Saviour  v^ent  before  to  prepare  for  you.  Escape 
from  your  troubles  to  your  eternal  home.  Do  not 
whine.  Do  not  complain.  Do  not  even  think  com- 
plaint. For,  by  sorrow  and  trouble  God  is  preparing 
you  for  power  and  influence.  And  many  of  you  with 
feeble  tongue  will  have  an  abler  administration  here- 
after than  you  have  here.  Many  of  you  with  feeble 
hands  will  hold  a  scepter  that  you  cannot  now  hold. 

Live  for  the  other  life.  Endure  as  seeing  Him  who 
is  invisible ;  work  by  faith ;  work  by  hope ;  work  by 
love ;  work  by  courage ;  work  by  trust ;  work  by  the 
sweet  side  of  your  mind ;  and  so,  be  like  Christ,  until 
you  dwell  with  him. 


END   OF  VOLUME  IIL 


Cambridge  :  Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


